Lost Luna : Prequel
by LukasDeAudi
Summary: Follow Queen Chrysalis on her journey of self discovery and claiming the long lost heritage of her people. Along with her childhood friend, Princess Luna, Chrysalis has to withstand many trials, either from the side of hostile, power hungry ponies, and even her own people. Chrysalis has to make friends with rebels, rogue AIs, and generally go against everything she's been told.
1. Chapter 1

We, changelings, have a great history, filled with bravery, honour and tales. We also have a superior quality in our bookkeeping. That means, we know what happened over the years our kingdom had existed...

Who am I kidding? I've barely known my own mother.

My name is Chrysalis and I had ended up stranded in some forsaken part of Equestria. I needed a way to straight up my thoughts, a reason for starting this journal. It proved useful in the future, as I had usual needs to sit down and think things over.

But, I need to get to the point, right...  
Story goes...

About a week ago, I was preparing to launch a surprise assault on pony capital, Canterlot. I had the plan down and everything was going smoothly. To catch you up with facts, we kidnapped one of their princesses. I think her name was Mi Amore Cadenza or something. I had assumed her identity so I could infiltrate into the capital. My changeling battalion was waiting in cover.  
Our plan was to capture one love-starved stallion, going under name of Shining Armour. Things were simple because his wedding was coming up and his wife was the mare I had switched places with.

His love was toxic, and it was making me feel like I could shatter the world under my horseshoes. That led to unwise change of plans.  
I wasn't planning to overtake Canterlot at all. I knew it would be a suicide mission. Yet, I dared to step down that path. I just couldn't help myself. Armour's love was so... overpowering.

Enough about that, you know how that ended. Everyone does...  
My infiltration wasn't exactly an impressive job either. I had known another one of the princesses on a more personal level.

Princess of the night or Luna, like everyone, liked to call her, used to be a friend of mine. During more calm times, about a thousand years ago, we used to go to the same college. Changelings and ponies weren't exactly friends back then, but they weren't enemies as well. We were roommates, me and Luna.

So, she wasn't suspicious when I had sent her a letter, asking if I could visit her in Canterlot. She gladly accepted, thinking it would be a great nostalgic moment, to relive our memories. I would gladly sit with her over a cup of tea or something, but I had duties as a queen...

I and Luna under the cover of the night went on a little trip around Canterlot gardens. My commanding officer suggested to get rid of Luna on that occasion, but I had refused. My plan was to order one changeling to assume the identity of a guard and deliver a note to Luna. Timing was important because it had to be done while I was presented. Luna couldn't get any suspicion of me being double agent that way.

So, the note Luna got was falsified message looking like one of her sister's quill. Luna was tasked to fulfil a patrol flight around Equestria, visit everyone important, the usual.

I had her out of the way without risking an encounter. I wouldn't want to face pissed off Luna, she was even more dangerous than her older sister.  
I am angry, you know, one thing that could go wrong did. I had no damn idea Shining Armour had a sister. Her name was Twilight Sparkle, the most annoying creature in Equestria. She was so damn curious and concerned about everything. She kept bumping into me such a way I grew suspicious. She had to sniff out something, or I wasn't careful enough.

The first minute I had met her, she showed me her behind after performing some silly dance. It took me a while to realise she had to know this Cadenza, and then I snapped. I had to get rid of her. I didn't have enough time to observe the situation to know how to act convincingly. I just got lucky, because no one seemed to know this Cadenza around Canterlot too well. Except for Twilight Sparkle...

I would go to too much detail if I were trying to explain the whole disaster somehow. It led to the situation where I was stranded and struggling to survive in some wasteland area.

I knew way too well I was the last one alive. Changelings have a thing called hive mind. We feel one another, we share information, we share the love. Not in the literal matter, of course. The only one who can feel emotions is me. We share love to literary survive, it is our source of energy. I wasn't sure if my species could even survive on classic food. Probably not,...  
Anyway, getting off track...

A couple of days after the event happened so quickly. I had no idea if I was alive or just barely holding on. I knew I had been walking, my hooves hurt like hell. I could just go forward. I didn't care if I would run into timber wolfs or some other horrors living in that forsaken part of the pony kingdom.

I have no idea what gave me the idea I should return to Equestria in the first place. I think my brain just went 'buck it; you can't be a bigger loser'. I wasn't exactly conscious, to be honest.

I think some guards had to find me. I was lucky they didn't kill me on sight, or maybe I wasn't lucky at all. They might just be oblivious to the fact I was a changeling because they called me a 'black mare'.

I regained consciousness after some time. Where did I find myself? That's a story for the whole another time. 


	2. Chapter 2

So, basically, I had ended up in some distant part of Equestria, in small town called Ponyville. No idea that one existed. What followed was terrifying. I was in the house of that one pony who had caused all of my suffering - Twilight Sparkle. I had no idea if that was faith mocking me or just something else I could not comprehend.

Twilight was more than suspicious of my actions. She more than once told me, she would ask Princess Celestia to terminate me, but was not allowed to due to an order of the same monarch. I learned Princess Celestia saw my imprisonment as a form of science study. And I was the specimen. I was terrified for the first time in my life. Genuinely horrified of idea what these creatures could do to me, just to study my species.

Fortunately, it didn't come to that. The science session included just me and Twilight in a sealed room with magic proofed walls. I forgot to mention, someone placed magic inhibitor on my horn. Since magic was essential essence to every species living in this place, it felt like I was carrying a boulder on my back. I could barely walk, left alone use magic or think straight.

After weeks of these sessions, Princess Celestia decided I was safe without the inhibitor. You cannot imagine the relieve I felt the first day after removing that damn ring.

I was also about to be relocated to Canterlot. Celestia wanted to have me under close supervision of her own.

I forgot to mention something very important. My changeling powers were gone, most of them anyway. I could not shape-shift as I was used to. I could not forcefully suck love out of anyone if they weren't willing to give it. I could sense emotions in a minor amount as well. It was frustrating.

About the last thing, I mentioned before changelings couldn't sustain on classic food for many days. It seemed like that was wrong. I was dining with ponies since my arrival and had no problem surviving. I felt okay, but as I said, my natural powers were gone.

I had cravings to study and learn new things. After days of being locked up in library with a book obsessed pony, I became quite an egghead to be honest. I totally forgot who I was when I was reading. It was almost satisfying. More reading I was doing, more I was starting to realise how little ponies knew about my species. Maybe I grew soft, but I almost held no grudge against them for being terrified of us and stuff. Yet, I was forgetting ponies tried to enslave us in the past, but that was story for another time...

I had packed my things and headed for Canterlot. I appreciated the effort Celestia put into ordering me a royal chariot. I'd terrify the heck out of the ponies going by train; I figured that out so far. So, after an hour long trip without any scenic view, because it was foggy as eff, we landed in Canterlot.

Celestia ordered me to shape-shift to more suitable form upon arrival, but as I said before, I could not do that. So, instead of playing that game, I had to wear a hoodie. It brought back some memories. Same pieces of clothing were Luna's favourite. I almost shed a tear... Not really, but you know what I mean.

What came next wasn't surprising, but also not expected. 


	3. Chapter 3

In the last entry I told you about how I was ordered to relocate to Canterlot. I apologize for making a bit of cliff-hanger there, but I ran out of ink to write with. Anyway,...

As I was walking with two guards on my sides through the palace gardens, I noticed something was off. Celestia said she would be meeting me there, right? Guards silently kept pushing me forward until we were inside of the castle. There was no one, not even servants were doing their jobs that day. I and my silent escort were the only ones present.

We entered the throne room and I immediately noticed Celestia sitting on her throne. Smaller throne, probably belonging to her sister, was empty. When we had crossed about a half of distance towards her, Celestia lifted her eyes from some scroll she was reading the whole time. I remember one of the guards announced, "We brought the changeling, your majesty." And they both bowed. I wasn't sure if I should be bowing as well, but my suspicion Celestia would execute me the moment I'd show her my neck, didn't let me.  
Celestia just stood there for a couple of seconds, and then smirked. I had no idea what happened, but I lost consciousness almost immediately after she had opened her mouth.

After regaining my senses, I was aware of fact I had to be inside of a dungeon cell and also, I wasn't alone. Celestia was sitting few hoof lengths away from me and she was clearly enjoying herself.

"I didn't know I could knock you out so hard. My apologies," she chirped happily. I groaned, because my head was killing me. How long was I out? Hours? Days even...?

I sat up, facing away from giggling princess. What was I thinking? That I could trust someone like Celestia? Those few days I spent with Miss Book horse Sparkle had to have a bad influence on my judgement.

Princess Celestia herself wasn't paying attention to my grumpiness and kept talking, "I had to put you here. No one knows what is going on yet and this is our only opportunity to get to know each other better, Chrysalis."

She said my name like we were sisters, not sworn enemies. I had to become soft, because it didn't bother me at all. I turned my head slightly, to meet the gaze of Celestia. She was smiling and awaiting my response. "You know what? Let's start over, yeah," were my words. I had nothing to lose anyway, and if Celestia was willing to give me a second chance, them who was I to complain.

So, my life didn't change that much. I was moved to a guest room and kept locked up all the time, so no servant was aware of my presence. I couldn't complain indeed. The room had all I could ask for, even its own bathroom. I could finally clean myself off the dust and dirt that settled on me.

Celestia herself was regularly checking on me, spent a while to exchange a word or two. She also let me borrow this diary, so I could write notes and other things in a way fit for a queen. I couldn't recognise her motives behind all of that. Why was she being so nice to me? Partially, I could guess she wanted to use my notes as a study material. Celestia also knew I could be valuable source of details against changelings. Only if she knew I was the only one left...

My only concern became the fact, I didn't know if changelings and ponies were at war. I did not care either way, but I was curious. As a queen, I was heavily guarded and couldn't go out of the hive for even a small trip. Without me, my subjects were nothing. So, I think you can get behind my lack of knowledge. It wasn't necessary for me to know anything. I was there to collect and ration love my changelings were gathering. Orders were up to commanders and I was there to just confirm or deny any move my force was about to do.

Anyway, getting off track...

I spent few hours a day to re-write my notes I started doing when I was over at Twilight's, just for the sake of having them in one place. Having a diary was my dream when I was little, but changelings weren't big fans of paper and books. They were unnecessary. My race used something more precise and long lasting - crystals.

We called the mineral Sonium. It could be found in large deposits underground and entire cave systems were full of it. It was very durable to magic; to the level most spells got reflected when meeting it. Only changelings could give it form, and we used it as a building material. High standing rulers of other Equestrian races used it as decoration, and the abilitity to enchant Sonium gems were legendary.

Back where I grew up, there were spacious rooms filled with shelves. Each shelf was filled with stacks of Sonium crystals. I have a very distinct memory of me and several other creatures, probably changelings, in such a room. There were words of old prophecy and archives of knowledge. Pretty pathetic, my only knowledge from that was my butt hurting from all that sitting in one place. I think it was some kind of ritual and those creatures were Elders.

Elders were ancient changelings, old kings and queens, retired from a throne. They were greatly respected among my people and only few would dare to say a word against their judgement.

Well, only to a day when they all disappeared without trace. That same day, bigger part of our kingdom got ripped to shreds by a rebellion of lesser queens and commanders that wanted independence. Then we were attacked by ponies, that without any delay, wiped out almost all of my species. I went to hiding after that, remained few decades under cover until water's got calm again.

I returned to a newly restored Changeling capital after my voluntary exile. My mother, Amora, seized the power over the capital, after the local rebellious queen went nuts and jumped off the tallest cliff to her death. When I showed up, Amora was fully established there, along with my seven sisters. Amora said it was important for me to learn new ways, as I was very hostile towards ponies during that time. So, Amora sent me to local college.

I went there to study ponies, who made their embassy in the same building. I befriended Luna, who happened to go there as well, and that was about it.

Next war arrived soon after and I had to run away again. I became fully fledged queen of hive after that, and I told you how that ended.

I mentioned a ritual earlier, didn't I? About that, it was weird. Elders placed several pieces of raw Sonium around me, in circle or hexagon. Each one of them stepped behind one of them and started casting spells upon the pile of mineral. They had to put me in coma or something. I had the weirdest dreams for several days after. I constantly heard voices that were giving me tips how to be a good queen. I had tried asking them what if I didn't want to be a queen, but they never replied. I was such a dumb filly back then. I was chosen by the Elders to be one. No changeling filly was ever born queen.

After writing this, I almost want to put this entry apart from my normal notes from present time. It gives me uncomfortable nostalgia of times I want to forget about.

Anyway, as I was going to meetings with Celestia, I started to smell a purpose behind her acting. She was asking targeted questions, very specific. Do you remember the Sonium crystals? Celestia brought them up out of blue. Ponies called them Dark Shards, but once she had described them, I had an exact idea what she was referring to.

During my absence, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza moved to an empire of her own, the Crystal Empire ponies called it. If I could remember correctly, in the roughly same location used to be the earlier mentioned Changeling capital, my place of origin. Could it be? Could I be going home?

That's story for another time. I need to pack my things. I am going to Crystal Empire tomorrow... 


	4. Chapter 4

I had to wake up early and my tiredness didn't get any better, even after a cup of pony coffee. How could they call that coffee anyway? That was like water, it had no punch. Kick in the face would be better.

Celestia assigned me two guards and chariot again, so we wouldn't have to go by train. I could wonder if from the same reason as before, or just because Crystal Empire was 16 hours away, even by high speed train. It took more than a few moments to get there. I lost track, because I fell asleep after an half an hour. I could at least catch up some lost sleep, which by the way, was Celestia's fault. She was arguing with her sister until one in the morning, two rooms from mine.

What woke me up was snow in a face. Crystal Empire was covered in deep frost. Guard told me to hold on and I did try my best, because the wind was insane. There was an energy barrier barely visible through the storm and once we passed through it, mind blowing blizzard was gone.

Everything looked different all of sudden. There was green grass, flowers and clear skies. In the direction we were heading, was a shiny structure, the Crystal Palace. I could figure out why it was called Crystal Palace, because it was obviously made out of crystal. I made a note to myself to test what sound it would have, if I tried tapping my hoof against it. You know, because I had to test out the theory Celestia more or less triggered in my brain. Could Crystal Empire be the place where I was born?

Chariot landed in the middle of some square, right under the palace. First odd thing I noticed was the entrance gate under which we just had landed. If this place used to be my home, I could remember one detail about this gate. There used to be a big piece of Sonium, right in the middle of the gate, floating just in the height of my eyes. If I remember correctly, it was power source for the shield that was protecting the whole place. From what we were trying to protect ourselves remained a mystery to me. Anyway, if that would be missing, the barrier we passed through had to be projected by something else.

My silent followers kept going and were pushing me towards the palace. I didn't resist of course. On one hoof, it was pointless, on the other one; it could be a great twist in my life. I kept reminding myself I had spent half of my existence locked up either in hive, or my parent's castle. That thought kept motivating me extraordinary way.

It was a nice surprise to see palace not empty this time. Personnel was going after their duties and no one was paying attention to me. It didn't bother me, I was even glad for it.

Princess Cadenza was sitting, or more likely, lying on her throne. She looked tired, like she hadn't slept for several days. Cadenza lifted her eyes to meet mine and just nodded. She didn't say anything, but I figured out myself, she was expecting me. Celestia thought about everything, thank stars above. It would be messy if she didn't.

So, the energy barrier had to be projected by her, or her husband. It was the same protection Canterlot had during my attack.

Later, when I was shown where I could unpack my stuff, Cadenza's husband came to my quarters. He was pissed off obviously. He kept rambling about me being a monster, that I used him for evil plot, and other general insults he could think of. I had an urge to kick him in the face, but then I decided to leave him be. He was just a stallion in the end. He couldn't control himself or his stallion needs...

When I had everything unpacked, it was night already. I caught a glimpse of Cadenza switching places with her husband. I figured out they were sharing the duty of projecting the field, so one would not get drained completely. Shining Armour was probably doing the night shift.

We had fresh apples for dinner. Now I know what was in the wooden box I was sleeping on the whole trip there. Also, when I said we, I meant me and Cadenza. She looked even more drained then earlier, but surprisingly she was able to hold the conversation.

She asked me about the trip, and filled me in about the thing Celestia sent me there for. Apparently, under the palace was a gigantic archive full of Sonium crystals. I was there to help translate them.

It was a mystery to me why would ponies need my help. All I knew about translating those things was, you had to apply magic to them and they would just reveal the memory to you. I asked about it. Cadenza didn't know anything herself, but she said she had faith in her aunt's judgement and there had to be a reason why she had chosen me. I made a note to visit a library next day, to figure out this mystery myself. I had nothing better to do anyway.

Dinner with Cadenza left me with a happy memory. I had doubts Armour and her would accept me as I was, and so far, only the male part was causing trouble.

Well, I am out of paper on this page. I'll call it a day for today. 


	5. Chapter 5

I woke up early again, but remained in bed for a long time. Library was opening after Sun would come up and there was no need for rush. It gave me good opportunity to reflect.

Where was the damn power source of this city? There used to be one, I was so sure. This way, Cadenza and Armour would drain all their energy soon and we would be left defenceless in case of real threat. I made a note to do something about it. Who knew what was hiding on the horizon?

In first moment, I wanted to stay in bed until noon, but my back decided otherwise. Old battle scars had never disappeared, even though those weren't really battle scars. Shining Armour and those before him just needed to lose weight...

Anyway, with my backside hurting, I went to plunder the dining room.

Twenty minutes later and I got lost. I turned around some corner wrong and I had no idea where I was. Luckily, I had wings, so I just climbed up to the nearest window, jumped out and returned through main entrance.

When I was about to go through the hall that was just behind door I had just walked through, I noticed there were travelling bags. Just that was enough to make me curious. Who they belonged to? I did my best to figure out the mystery myself by smelling and lifting the bags, but nothing came to me, so I left them where they were.

I had the path to dining area memorised. It didn't take too long to get there. This palace was much bigger on the inside and like a maze. Sometimes, I had a feeling it changed depending on the time of day. One room that was somewhere yesterday wasn't there when I was trying to find it next day. Weird, changeling hives were exactly like that and I had no problem navigating through them, so what was different...?

Anyway, I was about to discover who's bags were in the hall. The second I had entered the dining room, I immediately noticed someone was there. They were sitting the way their back was towards me and they were eating the leftovers I mentioned earlier.

I suspected Shining Armour or someone from the palace, to be taking a break with snack after their night duty. I certainly didn't expect certain someone.

"Hey there, Chrysalis, long time no see, huh?"

I knew something like that would come. In that chair was no one, but Princess of the night herself.

I just stood there, not sure what to do. My instincts were telling me to panic and run, but brain had a different opinion. My curiosity won once again...

"What are you doing here?" was a question I managed to say after seconds of thinking. Luna didn't look at me and just kept inspecting piece of pottery she was holding in her light blue magic field. Finally, she spoke up, "It was not nice of you, you know. You are my friend. Why betray me?"

She was dead calm and serious. It was scary...

She continued, "I know you had to do what you did, but straight up trying to conquer Canterlot? We could figure something out; I'd help you somehow..."

She looked at me, and I felt dumb and stupid. She wasn't angry at all, or was doing a great job hiding it. In her eyes was disappointment, and that felt weird. When did she change to act like that? I certainly didn't remember her that way. She was always more of a hot head, making decisions quickly and not caring about any consequences... But in that moment, she was behaving like Celestia and I was finding that disturbing at most.

She didn't say anything after that, at least for a while anyway. Luna lifted her wing, inviting me to sit next to her. I accepted her offering, attending to my left over salad that tasted like paper. I poured all the dressing over it, so I would make it somehow edible... It had to be enough for early lunch. Luna couldn't tear her gaze from me, slight smile on her lips. She really had to miss me, if she could forgive me for my actions that easily.

"You've asked why I am here." started Luna again, after I was almost finished with that horrible thing someone dared to call garden salad. She turned to me, her face muscles remaining motionless, almost like they were locked in place, and only her mouth was moving. "Have you ever heard of King Sombra?"

Yeah, that face was familiar too me way too well. Sombra was one of the first pony scientists that were accepted into our capital, after establishing the alliance with ponies. He immediately discovered our Sonium archives and tried to study them. He went completely mad of reasons unknown to me. I had to visit that library badly.

"Yeah, I did. What about him?" I said, not really paying attention, because my nostrils were attacked by strong mixture of scents from the meal I was eating. I coughed, but that made it worse.

Luna carried on, "My sister believes he's about to return and claim what belongs to him," she said and when she saw I was occupied by the troublesome salad, she didn't wait for me to respond, "He wants to be a king of the Crystal Empire again."

I coughed again, but not because of the salad, "Wait, what? Again?"

Luna looked at me with a grimace clearly stating, 'Have you been under a rock or something?', but then decided to refresh my memory.

"Before the disappearance of the Crystal Empire, King Sombra abused the power of mineral your species left behind to make himself immortal and extremely powerful. He then enslaved entire population of the Empire for nearly a decade. Me and my sister took care of him, locked the Empire in the state of hibernation and banished Sombra to the arctic wasteland. Princess Cadence was the only reminder something like Crystal Empire ever existed."

Wait, Cadence... That's a pet name for Cadenza, right? That would mean, she was my cousin, if that was even possible. It would be really distant relation, but still a relation. I should really pick my foes better or I could end up attacking my own sister. If some showed up on the horizon of course. All seven siblings of mine, along with my mother were killed during second changeling - pony war.

Back to me and Luna,...

I sat there, unsure what to say. I wouldn't really expect Sombra to be that persistent, especially after more than one millennium. I underestimated him, it seemed.

"And what are we going to do?" I asked and honestly, that was the smartest thing I could contribute in that moment, because my brain was not responding.

Luna shook her head, "We will do nothing. My sister has the whole thing covered, and we are here to just provide backup in case it'd go south. I've travelled here to help you with research and to keep an eye on you small bit as well."

"I hope the argument yesterday was worth it," I pressed my shoulder in Luna's side. She immediately tensed up.

On the other hoof, I felt offended by the lack of trust Celestia put in me, on the other one, I could understand the reasons. Once again, side effect of staying with Twilight Sparkle.

Speaking of Twilight Sparkle,...

"Element of Magic is heading this way. She's going to be here today." said Luna. Any other time before, I'd tensed up, because of my history with Twilight. After discovering the other side of her, I could tolerate her in my presence.

"So that's what Celestia call 'I've got the thing covered', eh?" I grimaced. Celestia needed to learn her precious pupil wasn't so great and couldn't do impossible. Sombra was way too powerful to be handled by one pony, even if that pony was very powerful as well. I'd know what to do, but my powers couldn't be gone to execute that plan.

"Don't underestimate Twilight, she's managed to beat the Spirit of Chaos and me personally," tried Luna defending her favourite bookworm.

"You don't have to defend her. It's not our business, but Celestia's. Your sister certainly knows what to do," I said, ending the conversation, "Anyway, I was about to head to library. Would you mind..."

"I'd like to go on a date with you," chirped someone from behind of us in improvised Luna's voice and we both jumped. It was Cadence and she looked much better than yesterday. Sleep did her good.

I and Luna were both blushing.

"Auntie, it's not..." tried Luna. "Shut up, Heart-butt," I yelled and left the room as fast as I could. Luna was right behind me and telling me to slow down. I eventually did, but only after I was sure Cadence was nowhere near. 


	6. Chapter 6

After the breakfast, if I could even call that breakfast, and totally rude ambush of Cadence, I and Luna were ready to take on library.

I had shared the reason why we were going there and Luna came up with surprising fact, "Those crystals are cursed, that's the feel I am getting from them." Interesting, I felt less confident and qualified from that moment. If someone put a curse on them, I could easily fall into trap and that didn't have to end well for me.

Library was, well, a library, just a lot bigger than Twilight's and more confusing than I could ever imagine. We spent over a quarter of an hour to try to find anything on changelings, but gave up because all the shelves were disorganised. It felt like someone had tossed all the books out and put them back in without really thinking where they belonged. All caused by a rushed stocktaking or something similar.

We tried seeking out the librarian, but they were nowhere to be found. I took one corner and Luna another, and eventually we found her, fast asleep on the floor behind the reception desk.

Another problem was something I noticed earlier and was obvious the moment the librarian had woken up. Everyone in the Empire suffered from a strange form of anxiety and loss of memory. If it was just the librarian, I could understand that. Libraries are and always were dull and nothing was happening in them, so it was hard telling days apart. Whole city suffering from this was more than strange in my book, and I added it to my list of mysteries I wanted to look into.

I am not going to list all the things that confused pony told us. Shortly said, she wasn't able to help us, at all. She was staring at us for a couple of minutes, before realising we were talking to her, and then started spitting out such nonsense, we stopped asking all together.

Fortunately, Luna was able to spot and snatch the library inventory list, so we at least knew what to look for. It was a mystery to me how we weren't able to see it earlier.

Well, only Luna did know what to look for. That piece of paper was full of atrocious hoof writing. I couldn't understand why someone would write with their hooves, when they had magic to lift things up with. Could crystal ponies use magic? Strange, I couldn't seem to remember if I saw a crystal pony with a horn.

Something was clearly wrong with that place, but we had to first discover the book we were looking for, to know what we could face in the not so distant future. I could presume it had to do something with ancient prophecy this Empire was cursed with, or maybe it wasn't a curse at all, and I was just over thinking things. Only thing I knew and could be sure of was fact the Crystal Empire used to be a changeling city. I settled on that this morning, when I couldn't find anything where it used to be yesterday. I had my doubts, but only buildings built with changeling magic could do that and even with my limited senses, I could feel magic all over that place.

Anyway, getting off track...

We were looking for a book called, "Ancient races of new worlds". At least, that was the translation Luna came up with, when we had managed to find it. Title was written in gold letters and in language, I didn't know.

So, it's probably obvious it was Luna who had to look for anything that could help us in the end. I could do only one thing, and that was admiring great illustrations, that were all over the pages.

Ponies had such a great imagination. Their pictures were so much better than real memories we, changelings, shared through earlier mentioned crystals. Actual creativity, not just copies... It's a shame I had let that side of me die, the creative one.

From what Luna extracted from the pages of that book, we had pretty good idea what we were dealing with. Luna told me it had a whole chapter on changelings and it wasn't pretty to read through. In the part labelled 'Curse spells and torture' was an article about corruption of magic. I had mentioned magic was essentially needed for anything to survive and function here. Your magic gets corrupted; you'll either die or lose yourself completely over time. Luna had a clear image the second she had found that article. My ancestors didn't really like ponies. That was for sure...

Looking at a bright side of thing, I was supposed to be immune to any negative effects. Any curses put upon the crystals were triggered by all magic, but changeling one. Even alicorns couldn't touch it and that was one heck of a protection for simple memories of the long dead.

So, our trip was more or less successful. We spent there roughly two hours, way more than we had wanted originally. On the other hoof, it was a great opportunity to catch up with my childhood friend.

It was nice to have Luna back on my side, literally. We used to be inseparable back in college, we did everything together, even things one would consider awkward to do around others. It wasn't anything perverted anyway, so we didn't care. We were alone in our dorm, because no one wanted to be in a company of changeling and princess. Either out of fear, or other reasons ponies come up with to justify their ridiculous behaviour sometimes.

When we had returned back to palace, we immediately knew something was off. There was way more guards around, and of course when we had showed up, one didn't hesitate to ask us where we were.

Apparently, there was an emergency few hours earlier than any of us expected.

Twilight Sparkle's team arrived when we were distracted at the library and they had duties to fulfil. Shining Armour lost his ability to maintain the barrier spell, because someone had cursed his horn - large chunks of dark crystals were attached to it. The duty remained on Cadence only and by the looks of it, she wasn't really happy with the situation.

Solution was needed and Twilight suggested a thing I cringed at - to visit the library.

"We've just been there, Twilight Sparkle," said Luna, "There's nothing that could aid you or the ponies of the Empire."

Effort counts, right? Twilight had made her decision before Luna warned her she would just waste her time.

I regretted greatly we didn't spend more time in the library. I had to mentally kick myself for forgetting all those figurative notes I had made. One of them was to look for the protection, my people used back when the Empire belonged to the changelings.

On the other hoof though, I was glad we had left before Main Six arrived. I wouldn't want to face that blue hot-headed pegasus again. Back when I was grounded in Ponyville, she once came to library. The second she discovered I couldn't defend myself, she attacked me. If Twilight wasn't there, she would kill me... I'd use a strong word, but no words could describe the grudge I felt towards her.

I had decided to leave the cause to pupils of Celestia. Me and Luna had a different purpose. After we had departed for supposed location of the changeling archives, Luna mentioned her worry. "It's only six of them and Sombra is so powerful..."

I reassured her there was nothing to worry about. Twilight defeated both of us single-hoofed. I considered myself way mightier than the pitiful and insane King of the arctic wasteland. 


	7. Chapter 7

I couldn't understand what Twilight and her gang read up on the problem, but they had decided to bring back an old celebration. Something about returning of compassion and love to the Empire.

I and Luna had a different quest to attend to, though. We ended up in the front of old entrance gate, sealed by authorities as an artifact dig site. Passing through the entrance guarded by only tore ribbons, warning anyone what they were doing wasn't legal, was quite easy. Our progress was halted by magically locked door, made entirely of marble, crystal and massive metal accessories.

Luna tried first, but her attempt was more or less met with resistance so enormous the door didn't budge. It was up to me.

I had an idea what we were dealing with, but for the sake of having fun, sort of, I had pretended I couldn't break the spell holding the door shut. When I saw the look on Luna's face though, it was obvious to me she didn't bite into thrown bait as I had expected. That lock was rather simple to overcome...

Flashes of old memories of mine appeared before my eyes as we were progressing more and more into the archives. I used to live there; it used to be my home. It brought back repressed feelings I didn't know that existed. Simply said, I started sobbing like a little filly I was when I first walked those corridors. I didn't even know why, it just happened and I couldn't do anything to stop myself. Luna put a wing around me in order to comfort me somehow. She had to be so confused. I appreciated the gesture, it was just enough to know I wasn't really alone.

Sounds of crystal fair happening above us had quickly faded in twists and turns of the archive and we found ourselves in complete and uncomfortable silence.

"So, how have you been for those thousand years we haven't seen one another?" I asked, and hoped it didn't sound stupid. Luna turned her head slightly to meet my gaze, "I wasn't really here, in Equestria."

"Were you on a trip? Did Celestia send you somewhere?"

I could sense a certain amount of uneasiness in Luna as she was speaking, "She did send me somewhere. Are you familiar with the Mare in the Moon legend?"

Mother of me, I am such an idiot. I read the legend as a first thing when I was staying over at Twilight's. I found it fascinating, but I would also never believe it was true, even less it actually affected my closest and only friend's life.

"I am sorry; I haven't meant to bring anything painful up..." That was the last sane thing I could do for her.

Luna just smiled. It was simple and easy to understand what she had meant. She accepted my apology.

We remained silent for the next ten minutes, listening to sounds of our horseshoes clipping against old marble floor.

I have never been able to understand why ponies have been using horseshoes anyway. They were a bother at least. You had to replace them when they got rusty, fix them when they got misplaced or you'd not be able to walk. I didn't grow to like them.

Rooms we were passing through were progressively getting darker and darker. Air was filled with water, and occasionally I could feel ice cold drops falling from ceiling and landing on me. Luna jumped when it first happened. Also, the ceiling was so high I couldn't see it. Over time, I started to wonder if there was a ceiling at all, and above us was just an empty void instead. I wouldn't be surprised, that place was built by changelings after all.

Suddenly, there was light and I had another memory flashback.

I was just a little filly and there was another hundreds of similar little hatchlings around me. We were sitting in the very room me and Luna just entered. There was one big changeling with broken horn, dressed in black robe. He had some sort of regalia around his neck - symbols of power. He was talking about something and his companions standing on each side of ceremonial setup, humming words in old dialect. They were casting spells on us. Each hatchling had to pass a test. If they failed, they were deprived of their self awareness and sent to different room. I presume these were supposed to become simple minded minions. Those of us who had showed up some form of higher intellect were tested further, and procedure was the same. This way, we were sorted to groups, based on what function we were supposed to fulfil for the hive. And I was chosen to be a queen of that hive...

When the memory ended, I immediately noticed Luna was staring at me. "What?" I asked her.

She shook her head, sparkling lights in her mane rapidly changing, "You've just spaced out for a second. Are you alright?"

"I am, don't worry, Luna. Just a memory..." I had to mention something. It didn't feel good keeping things from her, not after what happened between us.

She wasn't really convinced by what I had said, but decided to roll with it, "You know you can tell me anything. Was it a good memory?"

Why she had to try to investigate?

"I don't know. Do you know how are changelings sorted into classes?" I said, not really expecting an answer.

"I know second to nothing. Care to tell me all about it?" She had to know way more than she was letting on. She was the Princess of the Night; she was very well informed about anything happening in the whole world of ours.

I told her more than was needed. Everything I could remember about my childhood, my life as a queen, what happened when I woke up after I had failed to take over Canterlot.

She was listening to me with patience. She didn't interrupt me once and she kept looking at me with a focused gaze.

Did I ever tell you her eyes were beautiful? It was something about the contrast of colours. They were like two glistening ponds in the middle of deep forest. I had to read that somewhere. Poetry was more or less alien to me, and I wasn't the one for romance either. My species was always more like, 'Quick and clean' and 'Hit and run." We don't have the strength, nor the stamina of normal ponies, and that applies to any activity that requires it.

Anyway, I've once again got caught in the moment. Let's continue, shall we?

As I mentioned before, Luna was listening with patience of someone genuinely interested in what I was saying. When I was done with my ramble, we remained silent for several minutes. Once again, it was Luna who broke the silence.

"It sounds pretty boring to me. Your life so far, I mean."

That was true very much.

"No offence, Luna, but your sister is exactly like that. Sitting in the throne room, eating cake, occasionally goes for a walk..." I pointed out.

"True, you are right. She needs to exercise more. Or she'll turn into Fatlestia," giggled moon princess. Making fun of her sister wasn't a big deal to her apparently.

We were enjoying ourselves so much; we didn't even notice we had entered enormous room, at least twice as big as Canterlot throne room and in the same rectangular shape.

There were once again those strange crystal lamps, emitting weak, but still strong enough cyan light. There were also marble steps on longer sides of the room, going to upper parts of the archives. On the far away end was a stone door, much higher and heavier than any other we had encountered. When we got closer, I noticed there was something massive engraved on the surface of them, a symbol of some sort?

If my knowledge of history was correct, that symbol was an original emblem of Changeling Empire, before the pony war.

From that moment I knew we had reached our destination. 


	8. Chapter 8

It took way longer to break the lock on those doors.

"Have you tried not just casting the spell, but also pointing it at different parts of the rune?" asked Luna, when we were trying to get pass the protection for more than half an hour.

I didn't say anything. I had to focus, and my horn was starting to hurt. I could feel sweat forming on the bottom of my hooves (changelings don't sweat through their skin, because it's under the chitin armour).

I tried to send my magic through different parts of the rune, but it seemed to not work. In the last moment, I snapped at Luna, "Care to lend me a hoof?"

"But my magic has no effect here. How can I?" she replied.

I let the aurora around my horn fade away, mostly to get rid of a feeling it was burning a hole through my forehead and turned to my friend. "We might as well try something. I am afraid we are out of options."

"Okay, let's try together then," said Luna.

We both applied the spell to rune symbol simultaneously. Strange round particles erupted from the magical sign and exploded. We were catapulted backwards. When the dust settled, we both noticed the stone barrier was gone and behind its blown pieces was once again nothing, but utter darkness.

"Are you alright, Chrysalis?" I could hear Luna's quick pace running towards me.

"Yeah, I just need a break for a minute," I said as I leaned towards one of the stone walls. It felt good against my side and it helped to cool down my burning insides.

Luna arrived to me in one beat of a heart. She touched my cheek with hers, probably to ensure I was real and not just a ghost. She used to do that when we were in college.

I was always the one to sleep in, and Luna always got nervous when I did that. Our chemistry teacher had a strange obsession with ancient drugs. He kept saying they were still wildly popular among young, and we should avoid them at all cost. Luna knew I was the one to experience life to its fullness, so she got worried every time I didn't wake up early. It was cute and I always felt strange fluttering in my chest afterwards.

With the way forward no longer blocked up, we could freely dive into the depths of changeling archive.

"Can you feel it? No pony has entered this place in a long time." said Luna.

I sniffed the air and coughed. Air was stiff and it smelt of rotten flesh. Luna didn't seem to be affected.

I lit up my horn to be able to see. It didn't help much, because strange fog was blocking my light stream. I tried casting a spell to clear it up, but it had about the same effect as blowing air into it with mouth.

I was attempting to find the source of the smell. Eventually, I succeeded.

"Deceased bodies up ahead..."

There were eleven or more remains of ponies and changelings alike. I applied some breathing spell on me so I could ignore the smell easier and dared to go closer.

Bodies had signs of battle on them. There were broken weapons, dating about 1000 or 1500 years ago. Those who had been trapped in there were at war and fighting like two dogs over piece of meat.

"Could it be?" I whispered to myself.

"Could be what?" Luna protected herself with the same spell I did and was inspecting the bodies with me. I felt like a detective solving a crime.

"Changelings haven't been always like they are now. We had leaders that kept hives in balance. And one days all of them disappeared." I said, but earned only confused look out of Luna.

"What has that to do with anything? Are you suggesting...?"

"I think the answer what have happened lays further ahead. Let's keep these unfortunate ones here. We can ask someone to properly bury them later."

We did as I said.

It didn't take too long to finally reach the inner chambers. "Do you have any idea what time it is?" I asked, because I presumed Luna had some sort of connection with the Moon and could tell time. She didn't feel that way though, "No idea, Chrysalis. I'd say three in the afternoon perhaps, but I could be wrong."

"Now I regret I didn't bring Twilight's assistant with me. He could send a letter to someone on the surface." I said, truly thinking about the use of said dragon assistant. He was more or less terrified of me anyway, and it would be funny to see him tremble in fear. Oh, I am such an evil person...

"It got me thinking, those bodies. How come they still smell?" asked Luna. I wondered if she was asking just to fill in awkward silence, or genuinely didn't know.

"This archive is build for preservation. If you'd put an apple in here, it would be still edible, even after hundred years." I answered honestly, "It was built as a safe-haven for my people in case someone wanted to have this place exterminated."

Luna blinked once, then twice. She didn't quite understand me. "What I've meant, this place locks the state of an item. It means anything stays the same for as long as it is here." I added.

"Extermination of the Crystal Empire? What?" Luna was even more confused in that moment. It seemed like everything connected to that place was alien to her. Also, she seemed to ignore my second explanation completely.

"My people used to be paranoid as heck. Anyway, if I am remembering it correctly, apart from memory archive, we should come across life preservation bank. They were in close proximity to each other."

"There are frozen changelings in here?" asked Luna, in a very surprised and slightly scared tone. I nodded my head, "We'll have to see for ourselves. I don't suppose there's going to be anything valuable and once we are at exploring, we can make, or find a map as well."

There weren't anymore words afterwards. In complete silence, we arrived to another maze-like complex of hallways and doors.

All the hallways were the same and over time, I started noticing something weird. We were using a method of marking doors we had been to with magic signs. Over time, even though we were walking in one direction, we started running into them. It was almost like the halls were somehow infinite.

There was also a thought we could try to find main switch for all the lights in the facility. Omnipresent darkness was getting on mine and even Luna's nerves, which was something you couldn't see every day.

Both looking for the Archive, and the main breaker room, proved to be difficult to do. Surprisingly, we managed to come across rune protected door. Once I broke it, it was as obvious we had found one of the things.

Breaker room was a complex one, to be absolutely honest. There was a ton of small switches, lights and dark screens made out of crystals.

Luna summoned a light orb, so we could see a bit better. Due to earlier mentioned fog, it didn't help much. It was like there was a wall of pure white, right before my eyes.

All the signs were in a unreadable font once again, but once I started focusing more, I could make out some of the letters. I was one heck of an ancient writing. After several moments of going through the labels, I pressed one switch and lights came on. But, so did the security systems...

Before I knew it, I and Luna were imprisoned in a magic field and disembodied voice could be heard saying, "Scanning alien entities..."

My field turned blue from red and I was released. Same fate didn't apply to Luna...

"Chrysalis, do something..." she pleaded.

I tried speaking to the system, "Whoever you are, release my friend."

There was no response for a while and then, "Identity verified. Changeling origin confirmed. Do you wish to release the intruder?"

"Of course, you bonehead, now let her go...!" I raised my voice, as impatience and anger took me over. Machines that think they are smarter than me...

With 'ugh', Luna hit the floor. I immediately ran towards her to see if she was okay. She accepted my helping hoof and climbed back to all four.

"What the heck was that?" she spat on the floor, probably to get rid of bad taste in mouth changeling magic left behind.

"Security, but it should be gone now. I suppose it thinks I am your escort and it won't disturb us anymore." I said, thinking aloud.

"Escort? Who am I? A prisoner?" said Luna, offended by the idea.

"This place is centuries old," I suggested, "From the remains we found earlier, I presume the changeling pony war didn't end here. We have to be careful."

I turned to the glowing screen we activated earlier, together with lights and that pesky security system.

"If there was a way to access a map through this, we could find the archive in no time." I mumbled, mostly to myself. Luna approached me and looked over my shoulder.

My eyes kept searching until they laid upon a tab 'Vault layout'. I went for it immediately.

Next appearing on screen was a window saying, 'Insert storage crystal.' and several holes on panel next to me got enlighten with green light.

"Oh, it wants a crystal," I said, and looked over the table. Right on the edge, hidden in shadow of mine and Luna's, something sparkled, "There's one."

Luna stopped me before I could insert it into the slot, "Wait, Chryss. What if, you're about to destroy some important data?"

I thought about it and then inserted the medium anyway, "You know, if it was important, no one would leave it here."

Once the download was finished, I took the crystal and held it in my magic field, waiting for something to happen. Luna looked at me and snorted, "I see Celly really did found a qualified candidate."

"Shut up, I'll figure it out." I snapped at her and focused more energy into the crystal. It started emitting light and suddenly, stream of pure data got infused into my brain.

I dropped the crystal and it shattered. Luna gasped and asked me if I was okay. My response wasn't exactly reassuring.

"I know everything!" And on the top of that I produced creepy grimace of an animal high on quality sedatives. To Luna, it had to look like I went completely crazy.

When the effect of knowledge infusion wore off, I realised I was drooling. I quickly wiped my mouth and hoped Luna didn't notice. I didn't want to make her worry even more.

She seemed to get over any negative impression that she might had. She had regained her signature serious face and asked, "So, where are we supposed to go?"

"I'll lead, you follow." I said, because explaining the whole path would be tedious.

Apparently, we were going the wrong way as well, and infinite hallways were a thing. This place was constructed the way it would always lead you to some of earlier mentioned holding fields. After verification you weren't a threat, shape-shifting of the rooms and their infinity would be stopped.

We were able to find the archive pretty quickly, with a literal map of the place in my head. In our way was just another four runic locks, several dozens of stairs and realisation, it was getting pretty cold the further we were going. Archive was on the very bottom of the structure.

This place was constructed as a series of layers. I presume it used to be a marble / crystal quarry. When my ancestors dug out certain amount of material, they built a floor on the top of it, and locked progress further with a rune spell. This way, they methodically exhausted the whole deposit.

I expected some form of library setting and to be honest, the reality wasn't far away from it. All the crystals were in decorative casing, sorted and stacked on marble shelves. There was also an another console, like the one in security / breaker room. I decided to leave that one be for a while.

"Well, here we are," said Luna, "Are we going to start or we return to the surface?"

I looked in her direction, "Return to the surface? After a half day of looking? I am not leaving this place until all of these crystals are translated."

"Um, I don't know if you've noticed, but there are thousands of them. You are going to starve before you even hit a first half," objected Luna.

I sat on the ground and sighed, "You are right, but I am not leaving now. I want to explore some more."

Luna took a place beside me, "I guess we could do that."

So, we just sat there in the dim light that was coming out from somewhere.

That archive was really huge. I didn't expect it to be that big. Me and Luna were insignificant to the size of it.

"Do you think that Crystal Fair helped to protect the Empire?" Luna asked suddenly.

"I don't know, but hope so. King Sombra isn't someone I'd like to duel with." That was my reply. I didn't want to boast I'd totally kick his butt.

"Well, I think you'd beat him. You are much stronger."

Thanks, Luna, for inflating my ego. She could deny all she wanted, that was a clear compliment. I felt it.

I could feel the tingling in my chest again. My wings, normally calm and folded on my back, had a sudden urge to pop up. Out of blue, my horn lit up and I could feel little sparks jumping on my skin. After that, I shape-shifted to Cadence, and then, back to my original self.

I and Luna, got startled and both jumped apart.

"Didn't you say your changeling powers were gone?" asked Luna, standing good 10 meters far away from me.

"They were, for several weeks. But now, they are back." I said, trying to suppress the feeling I got from the event. I had a theory why it happened, but I couldn't mention it to Luna. So, I just said, "Let's keep the affection on minimum, okay. I don't know how stable my powers are. I could do something to hurt you."

The moment I said that, my wings tingled again and started fluttering on their own.

Luna smirked at the sight of that, "I get what you mean. Let's go. We'll try to look for your frozen colleagues and then head for the surface. I am getting hungry," she said.

Well, it seemed like I would not have to say anything after all. She had figured out something herself. Would it be good or bad, it wasn't my concern.

From the moment we had the encounter with security system, all the things that used to be trouble were gone. And I mean all of them - the fog, darkness, shape shifting of the rooms...

Our only enemy seemed to be my inability to read maps properly and Luna's grumpy stomach.

"Are we there yet?" she asked when we took the corner to left and there was no signs of life preservation banks anywhere.

"Trust me, once we'll be there, you'll know," I replied, only to get snort out of Luna.

"You've never been there. How can you be so sure?"

I remained silent, only for reasons of not starting an argument. Hungrier Luna was getting, more agitated she was.

I'll skip the boring part, to not repeat last two entries.

It was almost saddening look. Once the structure lost its power source and backup got depleted, all the frozen changelings died in their tanks. So, the only thing we had found were dead corpses. Not much of them, though.

There was hundreds to thousands of life pods and only three dozen of them were filled. First question of mine was where the rest was. You can't make a whole hive disappear, considering Crystal Empire was under siege of King Sombra and Royal guard as well in that time.

I made a mental note to return here as soon as I would get Luna to the surface. I needed to have that mystery solved. 


	9. Chapter 9

"What have I missed?" asked Luna the second we emerged from the underground.

From the whole city looking like a battlefield, I could guess the plan A, a.k.a Crystal Fair, failed.

But there was also something new. As we walked towards the castle, I noticed there was something glittering under the entrance tower - big Sonium crystal carved into the shape of heart.

Second we got closer, Luna's coat got covered by the same glitter the crystal was emitting. It didn't happen to me though, and honestly, it wasn't anything I'd miss.

Anyway, Crystal Palace looked like new. Everything was clear and spotless. Princess Cadence seemed to do much better as well. Only her husband was as grumpy as before, but that could be my fault.

I had some time to exchange few words with Twilight Sparkle as well. Apparently, she and her assistant found the Crystal Heart and with the help of Cadence herself, the power of the Empire got restored.

Good to know, at least something to be sure of. Crystal Heart had to be the power source I remembered.

I shared what I and Luna achieved as well. Twilight had seemed to be excited, and even went that far, she called her assistant. Princess Celestia had to know about everything happening that day.

I excluded myself out of the task. I gave Twilight a permission to write something based on what I had told her.

Instead of dealing with Twilight, I went to find Luna, who had left during my conversation.

Fortunately, Luna was still in the dining room she had implied to visit, eating up the meal that was prepared for her. I had no idea what meal it was, but it seemed delicious. Just by looking at her, I totally forgot I was starving myself. In the end, I had ordered a simple soup and took a seat next to my friend.

While I was waiting for the soup to cool down, Luna leaned on me suddenly. "I am so glad you are here. It was so long I had someone to talk to."

She was giggling under her breath, as my face was getting more red each moment.

"Oh, is little Chryssie embarrassed?" You could probably guess who that was. Cadence, of course, she was always there when I and Luna had a moment. Or I simply dismissed her presence, also a possibility.

I could feel magic building up in me, so I did what was the best for me. I ran away. I hoped Luna would forgive me for almost knocking her over.

I headed to my chambers, only to run into waiting Luna. She was so quiet there I would knock her of her feet again, wasn't it for a fact she was standing in clear sight in the front of me.

"What was that supposed to mean?" she asked with a serious expression. I felt like a little filly that just broke an expensive item.

Luna exchanged her grimace with smile after a while of silence and sat next to me, "I've brought you your soup."

I accepted the dish and mumbled thanks. It tasted alright, but I was in no mood for meal, even though my stomach would disagree. I had a feeling I had to somehow justify my actions from earlier.

Luckily, Luna was faster. "I should probably apologise. It was me who told Cadence about return of your powers, and how they returned."

I was inspecting a piece of carrot with the spoon.

"She is probably under impression we are in love, " continued Luna, looking straight at me. It felt comforting in a strange way.

On the other hoof, Cadence, as known as Princess of gossip, would tell anyone about me and Luna. It wouldn't be convenient in times like these, mostly because I just got reformed and Celestia was having me under supervision. No one knew what she would do after figuring out the truth I was dating her sister.

Abandoning my original plan, I decided to spend the rest of the day in Luna's company.

We borrowed some books from castle's private library.

We wrapped ourselves in sheets, lying close to each other with our sides touching and read the same book. Luna was faster reader than I was, so she got annoyed when she had to wait for me to finish before turning a page.

I felt so warm. My magic was boiling in me, but with each second, I was more and more in control of myself.

As the evening progressed, I had snapped and broke the 'no affection' rule. After a thousand years, it was like opening Pandora's box. When I used to feed on love of others, it always felt empowering, but I didn't feel any warmness. That time, it was way different and more pleasant. Also, I should probably mention that, the day I had reconnect with Luna, my chitin peeled away. Luna almost got a heart attack, but once she figured out what was really going on, she started laughing. It was so embarrassing to stand there without any skin, beside the fact I had to stay a whole day under sheets. Cold became my worst enemy.

The surprise of that moment was something else, though. The chitin that grew back wasn't black as before.

It was white. Or gray, if you'd want to go into details.

I felt like a majestic creature, walking the hallways with pride I didn't really know from where it came. Everyone seemed to have more respect towards my person as well. I resembled Celestia more, than my former self to be honest. 


	10. Chapter 10

It was almost a week ago I last picked up this diary. It wasn't because I got lazy, but I didn't have anything to write.

Seriously, nothing was going on. I was going to the Archives, spent half of the day there, usually accompanied by Luna, when she wasn't busy going about her princess duties.

During one of the occasions, Luna revealed to me she was looking after Twilight, who decided to remain in Crystal Empire to supervise the research. Luna got an impression Twilight was there to spy on me.

There was one small thing. Me and Luna decided to get together for good, after the day we had spent reading in my quarters. It was a heart warming nostalgia of the years long lost. Whole palace could hear us, so there was no point in hiding the truth anyway.

I and Luna were both starved for physical affection we totally forgot to be careful. In two days after our bonding, Luna had overheard conversation of Twilight and her assistant. Well, conversation is a strong term. Twilight was dictating a letter which read something like:

*Your sister is acting out of her normal self. I think she might be under control of Queen Chrysalis. I'll remain here until my suspicion is cleared.*

We lowered the amount of affection, so we wouldn't draw more attention. Twilight didn't look convinced though, and she was aware of us knowing about her sending regular updates to Celestia. We had to be more careful and act natural at the same time. It was situation without obvious solution.

Celestia was very protective of her sister. Well, at least she used to be those thousand years ago. She almost had me executed once she had found out about us. Fortunately, it wasn't up to her back then. I wasn't sure what she would do when there was no one to stop her, though, and taking my chances didn't seem like a good idea.

Twilight proved to be a nosy midget that wanted to know everything. When we cut the supply of obvious things she could report, she started following us. She didn't care if she was seen or not. Her purple eyes were there and every movement of ours couldn't slip by.

She eventually gave up, but it took almost two weeks. When she announced she was returning to Ponyville during one evening, I could hardly contain myself.

It was a lie though. For another week, each day she had packed and went to catch the train, only to return half an hour later to announce she forgot to pack something. Crystal Empire had only one train and trip to either Canterlot or Ponyville took 16 hours. There wasn't any other solution, but her staying another day. After five days, it started to seem suspicious.

I am not even mentioning repeating excuses why she, Twilight, couldn't use royal chariots.

Cadence, completely unaware of Twilight's true motives, snapped the fifth day. She told the purple unicorn, she didn't raise her to be that messy, and that she had enough. She had packed unicorn's things herself and walked her to the station. That didn't stop Twilight from asking 'Did you pack...?' questions every few seconds, though. Her desperation was high...

Me and Luna were observing the whole thing from balcony with long range telescope and couldn't contain our joy. Twilight's face of disappointment couldn't be funnier, given the circumstances.

Relieve of tense atmosphere could be felt immediately after Celestia's prot¨¦g¨¦ left. Only one who was causing some form of trouble was Shining Armor, but nopony was taking that one seriously.

Tedious job of translating the crystals proved to be difficult, in terms of effects the memory transfer caused.

After each crystal, I had to take few minutes break, just to recollect myself. The worst ones were units containing personal memories, because those left unpleasant moments of confusion. Particularly one crystal was so bad I completely forgot who I was and Luna had to use a memory backup I had made for case of something like that happening.

I questioned the point of the whole operation. There weren't any valuable data, just personality prints, meant to be used in case some of the frozen changelings had an amnesia.

I hoped for change in the pattern, but it was only getting worse. I threw few crystals against the wall in my frustration. They weren't good for anything anyway, changelings owning those memories were dead.

Side effects of memory transfer were getting worse each day. It wasn't any minor thing when I couldn't remember small details about myself. One day I woke up and realized I totally forgot I was dating someone and that I lived in Crystal Empire with her. It wasn't a pleasant morning.

It was Luna actually, who suggested that I needed a break. I would not consider it as an option, just because I felt strange obligation to do what I was doing, even though it was hurting me.

What was Celestia hoping to discover? Could those memories seem unimportant, because I was in fact a changeling? Was it the ancient language? Or the overwhelming amount of memories going over and over about the plan of last hope for changelings? I didn't know, that was for sure. 


	11. Chapter 11

Today was a big day. I had a day off and also a proper date with someone as amazing as Luna.

Night before, we agreed on plan. Luna wanted to show me a good time, so she would pick a place and treatment. Also, we had practical reasons for that.

I wasn't exactly familiar with the way of dating ponies were used to. Luna tried to explain, but was unable to give me a clear picture of her expectations.

I, on the other hoof, would go for anything, as long as I could spend the time with her. I wouldn't mind cheap fast food, or even dinner in the castle gardens.

Luna wanted to show off of course. She had a feeling she needed to tell the whole world she was dating me, so no one would try to 'take me'.

Who would consider former nemesis of Princes Celestia a dating material anyway? Luna was different, she knew me long time before I turned into love sucking monster.

Crystal Empire was more or less conservative about the way of formal dining. Luna picked the most fancy and expensive restaurant ever - The Moonshine. It wasn't a big mystery why she did so.

I forgot to mention, after reliving lifes of several dozen of changelings through their memories, I could easily remember my childhood as well. The realization hit me hard.

The college I was attending with Luna, it was the Crystal Private - school and Pony embassy, place for sharing knowledge and culture. Shame it didn't last long. My mother had patience for ponies and tolerated them as long as they kept their head down. Sombra wasn't the type to stay quiet.

I had to wonder, we did find dead ponies in the Archive, but were they part of Royal guard? So far it seemed like the whole conflict was more local than I had thought, maybe internal civil war between Sombra's slaves and changeling locals, resolved by royal sisters on behalf of someone. There were too many mysteries, and it didn't make me feel good. I am a changeling, I should know these things.

Regardless of anything else, Luna sensed I was thinking and wanted to know what was troubling me.

I told her about the college, and she just snorted, "I am surprised you can't remember such a thing."

It left me in awe, "Don't tell me you knew all along."

She didn't say anything else, probably not wanting to return to anything closely related to my work. We were going on date for reasons of forgetting, not remembering.

After a full night of disturbed sleep, because my brain hated me, I was left drained. Luna left me a note saying she would be waiting by The Moonshine at nine in the morning. I had to hurry, it was almost half past eight.

I skipped the breakfast, telling myself I would nourish my appetite during the date itself. It didn't help me to wake up. I didn't bother to look in the mirror as well, I knew I looked horrible anyway, so why waste time.

Luckily for me, I didn't have to use deodorant. My chitin armor completely nullifies any odour I could be emitting.

I had no idea Cadence knew what I and Luna were planning. She caught up with me when I was almost out of the door.

"Don't you dare go out like that. Luna doesn't deserve to be humiliated by your lazy attitude," she shouted, maintaining the pose of military commander.

"But I am going to be late, that's what you want?" I replied, with about the same intensity as her. Near windows ringed.

"Better late than never," she again screamed her words, even though I had walked over to her. That was getting ridiculous.

"Why are we shouting?" I asked in an unamused tone. The situation was amusing enough, but giving Cadence figurative ammo that way, it wasn't a good idea. I was late as I was.

Cadence didn't reply and took out the comb out of somewhere. I refused outright all the body decoration Cadence wanted to put on me. First off, it would be embarrassing, second, Luna specifically told me to remain myself.

I didn't mention that, along with the color of my chitin, my hair changed as well. It wasn't like strings of slime anymore, but the actual hair. Harder to maintain, but I could see the advantages. For example, if you sat on it, it didn't hurt that much. Believe me, I've tried.

In the end, I was about ten minutes late and Cadence wasn't about to stop 'making me ready'.

"I think that's enough, Heart Butt. I have to go."

Cadence snapped out of some kind of trance and blinked. "Oh, I had to drift away. Your hair is simply marvelous." Who did she turned to? Rarity? That damn white mare tried to cut my mane off. By her words, it was a crime against fashion.

"Few more minutes and I won't have any," I said, more calm then I should be in the given moment.

"Luna wouldn't do that, but you have the point. Enjoy your date, dear." said Cadence and walked away.

I could not make the trip to Moonshine on foot in reasonable time, so I had to try out something else. Twilight made me to learn how to teleport. I had a feeling it was the best opportunity to test those skills.

I focused all my energy to formulate one strong thought. In the flash of blinding light, I could hear the glass shatter. My carapace burned like a molten metal, but I had to focus. My whole existence seized to be, and I lost the connection to myself.

Brutal impact that felt like it originated from within my skeleton itself, left me shaken and I could feel my own body again. With adrenalin going through every vein of my body, I took the step forward.

With a snap, I reappeared good ten feet above the open street. I tried to use my wings, but they were stiff from the shock.

The fall felt like there wasn't ten, but at least thousand feet below me.

My armored hooves gave up when they came to contact with solid ground. I could feel them burn as I bounced off the marble surface, just to hit it again seconds later.

I shook my head, blinked several times to clear my vision. I was in the front of the Moonshine. I'd pat myself on back, if I wouldn't have to think about the pain in my side I had landed on. I grinned my teeth together and hoped it would go away soon.

There was no concern of others, ponies under large umbrellas sitting by the tables by Moonshine didn't do anything - apart from raising their eyes from a meal or newspaper, shaking their head and proceeding without care. They would let me die with no regrets.

Obviously, there was someone observing my entrance and that someone stormed out of the restaurant moments later. You could guess who that was...

"Chrysalis! Chryss! Chryssie, you didn't have to do that."

There was worry in Luna's voice. She rushed to me, hastily checking for injuries.

"Don't worry, Luna, I am fine. I'll walk it off." I said, trying to stand up. The pain in my side just got worse, but I pulled through it and was able to sit. I had to look so stupid. It didn't feel any better knowing I had made Luna worry for someone like myself, over something as minor as backache.

I didn't feel as a majestic creature anymore. Luna helped me to get up, and limp over to the nearest bench. Pain I felt earlier was slowly going away. I could feel my limbs again at least.

Luna ordered me to sit tight, that she would be back in a snap. She then disappeared in the restaurant. I could hear raised voices and angered stomping of hooves. Luna then emerged form the establishment, anger in face.

From what she had told me, the staff simply thought I and Luna weren't going to eat today, so they assigned our booked places to different customers. I have never seen Luna so enraged before. She would set the whole place on fire, if there weren't anyone else but staff and managers.

I cracked a hole through my hoof, so I couldn't walk as normal. I blame the crappy horseshoe. One nail went through the carapace like a chisel through stone, snapped in half a punched a hole in my leg. Luna pulled the nail out on the spot, applied some magic to the wound, so I could at least walk.

That didn't stop her to offer her back, if I couldn't make it back to palace. I refused obviously, that would be unacceptable. If I weren't late, we might not had to be in situation like that. It was all my fault.

Luna once again left to order some food from ordinary sandwich stand. That was part of her backup plan. She knew there was a possibility of us not being able to have fine lunch at the Moonshine.

So, to make this entry shorter, we had a picnic.

It shouldn't be any surprise I wasn't nearly ready for anything that happened that day. I wasn't disappointed or anything, picnic or fine meal at some fancy restaurant, I could care less.

My main concern was Luna. She was planning everything carefully, hoping to have a great day out with me.

It turned out to be a literal day out, as outside. We were lying just inches apart, our sides slightly touching. As we were eating our sandwiches, Luna kept whispering sweet words into my ear. To me, it was the best thing in that moment, even though I had to clean the mentioned ear later. 


	12. Chapter 12

My date with Luna didn't turn out to be anything extraordinary, but it did make a difference. It brought much needed relaxation.

With Twilight gone and Cadence aware of mine and Luna's relationship, there was nothing much that could ruin my near future.

Even the Changeling archives started being more interesting. About a week before writing this entry, I had discovered certain set of memories. Those memories belonged to leaders of the changelings back then.

What triggered my curiosity was the mention of a fleet of colonisation vessels, placed here in the Crystal Empire. According to data, there were seven of them in total, but one failed to takeoff when the time came. There were subtle hints of something like that in earlier memories, but only now, it started to form a bigger picture.

If my assumptions were correct, that ship had to be situated somewhere in the Archives, along with several smaller escort vessels. But, how could something as big as a colonisation ship go missing?

Searching would require complete access to every part of the Archive. We had a map, but only Elders knew if it was correct, or complete. My bets were the creators didn't want just anyone to know where the last hope of changelings could be.

So, I was technically at square one. I'd have to look through all the rooms, be on the watch for hidden doors, or hatches. Entrance to the 'Hangar' could be anywhere.

Help with the cause came from an unexpected place.

It was more or less coincidence that I dropped that supposedly empty crystal.

First things first, though.

I was taking a break, ready to meet up with Luna. I had brought some crystals with me, not intentionally of course as I simply forgot to take them out of my saddle packs when I left the Archives the other day.

We were to meet up at the square with large mosaic of snowflake instead of regular marble pavement.

When Luna arrived, the sun was already setting, so I had briliant idea to use the crystal to create our own rainbow. I took it in my magic field, trying to get the right angle for creating the prism.

Suddenly, that crystal sprout to life and my magic field short circuited. Rain of blue and green sparkles made me go blind for few seconds as strong wave of energy hit my brain. I lost the grip on the crystal and winced in pain. My horn felt like it was about to rip apart.

Crystal didn't shatter upon impact though. It passed right through the pavement and the pattern under our hooves lit up like a Christmas tree.

Whole place started changing, shifting and more importantly, disappearing. I and Luna had few seconds to get to somewhat more stable surface. My wings saved me.

Whole snowflake mosaic twisted and turned away and revealed new area. It wasn't anything special, at first glance at least, just a big hole in the ground leading to some forsaken place.

I gently fluttered above the hole with my aching horn lit up to be able to see what was hiding down below. Unfortunately, it was too deep to scan it properly.

"Are you up for an adventure?" I asked Luna, who seemed to be having about the same interest in the formed structure as I did.

"By adventure, you mean jumping down, don't you?" she said.

The fall, suppressed by our wings to velocity we could survive, was long and monotonous. That structure was nothing but a long tube, leading somewhere underground.

On the way down, we passed through huge open trap door, made of solid metal. Under them, we could finally recognize outlines of something big. Something like a star ship.

We found the hangar.

It was a discovery of the century. The actual relic, that looked like it served some purpose. I landed few feet apart from the super structure and silently admired it. It was truly huge. My rough guess was it could carry my whole hive in it.

It was surprising the ship didn't look damaged. Paint job was a bit deteriorated, but that could be expected after a thousand years down there. As I kept looking at its chassis, I noticed a name on its side, written in an ancient changeling dialect.

That ship's name was Little Wrath, or at least that felt like a correct translation.

Interestingly enough, my mother used to call me that. One way how to traumatize child, to be honest, but I was a badass. It didn't get to me that much. I wondered if it had to do anything with me. My memories weren't intact. I couldn't resurface large parts of my life, but still, being assigned a captain of a fricking space ship was something I thought I could remember.

According to a memory crystals I had observed in the Archive, there were seven ships like Little Wrath. Each ship had a designated captain, but only six showed up. While the other captains are known, the seventh is not. Could it be me? Did I cause all of that by my retreat from Crystal Empire when Sombra showed up?

Well, only one way to found out.

"Luna, we have to get on board of that ship." I said.

The look Luna gave me was more or less full of surprise and she threw an objection on me immediately, "Are you nuts? It could fall apart!"

I didn't listen, because in the moment she had said that, I was already several steps ahead. Luna followed me at last, but kept cursing under her breath all the way.

It took us two whole minutes to walk around the chassis of Little Wrath. By the looks of it, the ship tried to take off, but her propulsion systems failed. She had to fall from the support frame and smash into ground.

On the other side of chassis, we found the hatch, that could possibly lead inside. Even bigger surprise was a thing, that it opened right after I had approached it. It seemed like the ship itself was aware we were there. Creepy feeling crawled upon my back and I gulped.

"Not feeling so bold, aren't you now?" mocked Luna my previous bravery. I didn't say anything, lit up my horn and took a step inside of ship's chassis.

"Stars above, Chrysalis! Do you have to take everything I say as challenge?" cried Luna out in frustration as she followed me inside. I had ignored her and slowed down a bit until she caught up.

We were in some kind of corridor followed by a long staircase, all surrounded by darkness. I could hear machinery making ticking sounds as we were passing by what looked like a ventilation shafts. Uncomfortable feeling of being watched was crawling upon my back again. Every sound made me jump. That ship was made by changelings, but it didn't look like anything changeling. I was used to changing and shifting hive, even the Archive was something I could get used to. This ship however, it felt like a tin can, full of weirdness and scary dark corners.

When I and Luna had reached the end of the stairs, another previously invisible hatch opened. Whole ship wheezed as an old steam pump.

"I said it, it's falling apart!" cried Luna, terrified to maximum level. She tried to turn back, but I grabbed her tail in time and dragged her back, next to me.

I took a peek to a new area behind that hatch. In the front of us was an open space, large room of an unknown purpose. If I could guess, I would say it used to be a mess hall. There was enough space to host a dance class. However, if there used to be any furniture, someone did a serious cleaning. That room was completely empty.

I took a step inside, dragging Luna along by the hoof. She was still a bit nervous about the metallic scratching the ship was making every ten seconds.

We passed through the empty room and another door opened. That vessel seemed to be leading us somewhere. There were three possible ways, three doors to be more precise. All of them were locked and unaccessible. I tried pressing all the buttons, but none of them were operational.

Last doors were leading to an elevator. As soon as we entered, its entrance shut tight, and the lift accelerated up. I could feel my earlier cracked hoof tingling with vibrations the elevator was making. Finally, we found ourselves where the ship wanted us to be. The door opened.

Yet another corridor and we could go in only one way - to the right.

Suddenly, all lights flickered and woke up from their thousand year slumber. Dark hallway was enlightened and I realized it was made out of processed wax. Changelings used similar material to build hives. For me alien ship felt more like home out of sudden.

Nothing so far had explained, why I and Luna were dragged through the insides of that vessel. What we were supposed to do there? What was expected of us? Who was behind all of this?

We took the hallway we were literally pushed into by darkness. All the lights behind us turned off and only corridors at front were somewhat enlightened. Another door opened with buzzing sound.

The area revealed to us was more than impressive. Half of the top and middle front side was just glass, or polished dark crystals that appeared as glass. On the bottom were consoles, emitting dim green light. In the center was elevated platform with console on its own. My best guess was that platform could be for ship's captain, bottom side consoles were for system operators and middle one for pilot. The shape of the room was hexagonal, with two staircases on each side and captain's platform above everything else in the room's centre.

My curiosity got the best of me. I had left Luna behind and approached captain's console. It felt like an unknown force was telling me to claim what was rightfully mine. Disembodied voice stopped me dead in my tracks.

"I've been waiting," it said and I jumped good foot up. Its voice structure was nothing like I had ever heard. The sentence felt and sounded weird as it was, and it had uncomfortable buzzing in it on the top of all. I could make words out of all that noise, but whoever designed such a thing had to be evil.

"Please come closer, I want to take a look at you." Voice didn't wait for me to acknowledge its presence, nor verify I could understand it. Its words felt familiar though, like someone in my past told them to me.

Strange feeling of being watched was filling me up. I couldn't help myself, but take a look around.

Slowly, I started to realize the dark, lifeless window panels above me weren't windows at all, but monitors.

Suddenly, everything lit up. All the monitors turned on. Blank white screens were looking down at us. I took a step back, just to bump into Luna. She was just few hoof lengths behind, hiding in my shadow. We both jumped, lost balance and crashed into each other.

In the place I stood a moments ago appeared a ghastly figure of changeling queen, like myself, but much smaller and in better physical shape. Her hair were in the same colour as her body and styled in the same way Cadence would have them.

The figure glanced upon our lying forms, giggled in high, feminine tone and covered her mouth with hoof. "I hope I haven't scared you. It's been so long since I've had some company." She approached us even more. She sounded so much like Cadence it made me think someone copied the pink princess to make this green one.

Luna was holding upon my back, using my body as a living shield. I wasn't surprised too much, not after what we were through in past few weeks. She had a right to not trust any changeling machinery, especially an AI that seemed to have a sense of humour.

The AI herself didn't seem to be bothered by us being upset and such. She was bunny hopping back and forth, laughing like a little girl. "This is gonna be so much fun. I have to tell others right away," she exclaimed. In a blink of an eye, she was at the console, produced several hexagonal light screens and talked swiftly. "All ships, this is Alea from Little Wrath. Anyone in for a party?" But there was no response.

So, the name of our new friend was Alea. She was very much like Cadence in her teen years. I felt almost bad for her, when she was repeatedly trying to call non existing friends.

After her tenth echo message, she had turned to us and asked, "Why is no one else here? Where are the others?"

How do you answer a question like that? I could be honest and tell her we didn't know anything. Or we could try to provide any information we had.

"I don't know how to answer that, Alea. How long have you been down here?" I layed out a honest question. The look she gave me could be considered suspicious.

"What do you mean, Chrysalis? In my opinion, you are just in time." She said, calling me by my name for a first time. "We are supposed to take changelings to the stars together. Why is the rest of the fleet not responding?"

For the first time in the past minutes, Luna walked out of my shadow and asked the AI directly, "Care to check your chronometer, Alea?"

The AI shifted her attention to the Princess of the night, "Princess Luna! What an honor to be in your presence, I can't believe..."

"Check your clock, Alea." snapped Luna, in harch tone completely uncalled for. Alea's eyes moved and I noticed they were like two irises you see in cameras.

Alea took several steps from left to right. All the monitors behind her dimmed and the room got dark. Only the light she was emitting remained the same. She seemed to be going through an emotional swing.

"I - I cannot access any local resources on time period. That would mean everything apart from this part of Archive is inactive. I read no life signs in any system." she said, lowering her previous pace to intensity of very slow walk. Her voice was getting less and less clear. Suddenly, she turned to us, "How long has it been? How long?" The last words were almost yelled directly in my face. If she could spit, I'd have a face full of her saliva.

"Almost a thousand years." answered Luna in low tone, like a mother trying to make her child feel better.

"I am sorry, Alea. No one else is coming, and I am the last changeling I know of." I added.

Alea showed us her back and said, "Thank you. Follow the lights, they'll lead you safely outside. I need time to think."

I and Luna sensed it would be unwise to ask heavily upset AI further questions, so we followed her advice.

It didn't take as long as before to get out of the ship. When I stuck my head out to cold air of the hangar, I had to appreciate the clearness of the air inside of the vessel. Alea knew how to keep the insides livable, that was for sure. Air in the hangar was stiff and had a weird odour to it.

There were several things I'd have to address in next days. First of all, I'd have to update Alea on everything that had happened, next thing would be figuring out how many holes her memory had. She seemed to be out of sync, but still aware of decaying Archives next to her home - Little Wrath. Why was she active? When was she reactivated?

Luna didn't share my enthusiasm for research of the changeling vessel. In her opinion, the smartest thing to do was to seal the Hangar away and don't tell anyone.

It didn't help either the press started to be interested in my research. It wouldn't be a surprise at all, I did open a fricking big ass air lock in the middle of the Crystal Empire, in the place where everyone saw just a strangely placed town square.

Luna excused herself out of any debate with press and left me to handle the situation. That wasn't wise at all. Only thing we achieved was raising suspicion of the public. Newspaper ponies made me in the image of saboteur, who was trying to steal Equestria's property.

I could imagine Twilight rubbing her hooves together and grinning from ear to ear. 


	13. Chapter 13

Just a quick note to say that a lot of things happened in between entry 11 and 12. I am currently on board of Little Wrath, floating in darkness around some forsaken planet several light years from Equestria.

But now, to fulfill the gaps.

It didn't take long to make a target out of myself. Same day, just when I was finishing writing my previous diary entry, someone had knocked on my door. I presumed it was Luna, who was supposed to meet me and was an hour late already. I was prepared to give her a little lesson on keeping promises, but the second I had opened the door, I regretted I didn't check who was behind them. Two solar guards and Princess Celestia herself entered without greeting, pushing me out of the way.

"Are you aware why are we here, changeling?" said alicorn in formal tone. Celestia had never called me 'changeling' before, not even when I was in trouble.

"Does it have to do anything with the newspaper article?" I answered her with question. She shot an unamused look my way.

"I am afraid your days here are over. Twilight was right about you from the beginning. Guards, throw her in the dungeon."

I didn't resist. First of all, I knew it was pointless, and it would only make things worse. I had to know what happened.

When we were passing through the castle, I heard fighting about two rooms ahead.

"How dare you, solar dogs. Release me at once." I knew it was Luna, and she needed help. In my current situation, I could just sit down and watch as ten guards overrun my friend and put an inhibitor on her horn, as they did put one to me, even though I didn't resist.

"Oh, just in time. Put her with that monster," said someone walking out of the room Luna was carried from.

It was Twilight, grinning and happy like I had never seen her before. I grinned my teeth together and hissed loudly at approaching unicorn.

One of the guards hit my face with an armoured hoof. Blinding pain knocked the wind out of me and I could taste blood. I spit out the teeth he had knocked out and gave Twilight an angry look.

Twilight approached me, looked me straight in the eyes, "Shame we couldn't find a common ground," she said.

I didn't say anything, nor did Luna, who lost consciousness after being hit with some spell Twilight herself cast upon her. Guards took us to the deepest part of the Crystal Empire and threw us in the dungeon. We were left there to die.

I had no idea if it were minutes or hours. Luna didn't recover to that moment, no matter how hard was I trying.

I saw a shade of pink in the dim light of the torches placed on the rough, stone walls of the dungeon. "Chrysalis? Are you okay?" said Cadence, who just arrived.

I wanted to be sassy, because I had enough of ponies for one day, but managed to remain calm and responded, "I am alive."

Cadence sprinted towards mine and Luna's cell and started working on the gate and our chains with magic. All of them disintegrated away with fizzing sounds. "You have to get out of here, off the planet perhaps. Use your ship." said Cadence as she was trying to help me up. She took the magic inhibitor off my horn. I lifted Luna up, who was still unconscious. And then it hit me.

"Wait a second, how do you know about Little Wrath?"

Cadence gave me an apologetic look and said, "I've overheard Twilight speaking to Aunt Celestia. Twilight was explaining that certain star ship could be used to increase influence over the planet and that it is here, in the Crystal Empire."

How the eff they knew about anything related to Little Wrath? It was discovered just a half day ago.

"Where did you leave Shining Armor?" I asked, because I half expected him to join his sister. He was the captain of the Royal Guard after all.

"He volunteered to provide a distraction. He had to make Twilight busy, because she was making a great effort to stop me from talking to either of you."

Good for him I guess, he was useful in the end for something at least. I didn't ask any more questions, carried Luna on back and followed Cadence, who seemed to know where to go.

We stepped into darkness, to emerge in the dark hallway with door, awfully similar to ones located in the Archive.

"Do your stuff, Chrysalis. Open these doors," Cadence encouraged me. I focused my magic on the runic symbol and the door opened. Gathered moss got scratched away of the their surface.

"Ah, there you are," said someone familiar and I could see something emitting dimmed green light approaching us. "I thought I'd lose you."

It was Alea. She seemed to be as vital as before, paterns of data were swirling around her. "Alea! What are you doing here?" I asked. She gave me the warmest smile.

"Saving your ass. I've interfaced with the Archive and accessed its systems. Follow me!" With that, she walked away, gesturing me to follow.

"Well, it's time for us to part ways as well. It would be suspicious if I was seen with you," said Cadence and pulled me in for a hug. "Take care of auntie Luna for me, okay."

I could feel tears in my eyes, "Will we see each other again? I grew to like you, Heart Butt."

She nodded with a smile and saluted, "I am sure we will, captain Chrysalis." And giggled afterwards, "Good luck!"

I followed Alea in to the darkness as steps of Cadence were getting less and less clear behind me. Luna was moving slightly on my back, probably shifting between stages of her comatose state. Alea was moving rather fast and occasionally checking over her shoulder, if I was still following her leading.

I had a feeling I was in that part of the Archive already. Patterns that were lighting up and down, serving as a light source, were strangely familiar. I knew where we were going. Alea could lead me to the only save place in Equestria - her ship.

Or at least we thought it was the last save place. The second we had emerged from hidden door, I realized we were too late. Royal guards were stationed around the hangar and derelict ship of mine. "Goddamn it." I cursed under my breath.

Alea looked my way and her expression turned into surprised one. "It seems the ship was compromised during our absence."

"You don't say," I replied, "How do we get in?" I hoped my white skin wouldn't give out our position, as I was peeking over the corner.

Alea considered our options, "We could use defense screen. You know flares against projectiles."

"You can do that?" I asked, even if we didn't have much of the choice. Plan was a plan.

Alea smirked upon my comment, "Doubting me?" She then stuck her head out of our cover to have a clear view on the ship, "I'll just hook to systems and we are good to go."

I hoped her plan would work. Royal guards were trained to ignore almost anything, including fireworks.

From my position, I could see small hatches on the sides of the Little Wrath's chassis open. Immediately after, about a hundred of flares filled the area, followed by dense smoke.

"Let's go," pointed out Alea the right moment and shot forward. I was a bit slower, because I had to hold Luna, so she wouldn't slip off my back.

Smoke started rising and unfortunately, guards were keen enough to notice me.

"There they are! Get them!" shouted one guard I knew was called Flash Sentry, and the rest of his colleagues followed. I shot a paralysing spell on him, missed by a string of hair and hit a wall. Spell ricocheted and zapped one of the remaining flares. Explosion followed and guards stopped dead in their tracks, because sparks of an unguided remains of my spell rained upon them, causing burns. They didn't pursue us anymore.

Alea was waiting for me at the hatch, the one I and Luna used earlier. I squeezed through. Alea told me to go to the first floor and remain there. I didn't complain and did as she said.

Alea rigged herself back into ship's systems and immediately gave me a warning through local speaker, "Chrysalis, stay where you are!"

I stopped in the middle of the staircase, "What is going on?"

"Guards on a flight deck. Can you see that hatch on your right?" said my digital companion. I scanned the area, and found what was she was referring to.

"Climb in. I'll deal with the guards efficiently." I had no idea what she had in mind, but squeezed in the small hiding place in the wall. If I and Luna weren't in grave danger, it would almost be cozy.

I could hear pressure filling the hiding place as the hatch I crawled in through closed itself.

"Sealing ship's interior. Reducing oxygen," said Alea in tone, that suggested she was actually enjoying what she was doing.

It took only a moment. I heard the compressor filling the room with air again and Alea told me it was safe to go. She also added to not trip over dead bodies on my way up. My obvious concern was how we would get rid of them. I didn't want corpses on my ship.

On my way up, I counted the dead. I almost felt sorry for them and I didn't even know why. They were ponies with families and friends, serving someone who was willing to throw lifes away. I wondered if those guards died for Twilight or Celestia. From what I could assume, it was all Twilight Sparkle's plan. She had access to all the information I was going through. I could only kick myself for sharing them with her first. If Celestia knew where was the truth, she would not issue orders she did.

I left out a bit of information earlier. Twilight tried to twist the truth so Celestia would see me as a threat, back when I was living with her in the library. When she failed to do so, she tried to twist the way Celly saw her sister, so Luna would get framed for treason, and through that, get to me. Thing was, why did Celly changed her view on me out of sudden? What did Twilight tell her?

Alea disturbed me from thinking, "It'll be wise to take your friend to infirmary. I'll lead you there." Again, good advice, nothing to say about that.

Alea turned on emergency lights, so I could at least see a bit better. She led me around the ship with light prompts, like she did before.

I wondered if Cadence got out of her own situation alive. And her husband of course as well. He was a bit of a moron, but still a great guy in the end. Twilight and those helping her were so going to get it.

Infirmary was a small room, fitted for one or two patients. It was surprisingly brighter than the rest of the ship. Alea instructed me to leave Luna on one of the beds, and claimed she would recover on her own. My concern was what exactly Twilight did to her, but Alea only said good night sleep couldn't hurt her. I didn't feel good, leaving Luna in an unknown place like that.

My presence, however, was needed somewhere else. Alea told me she could use my help on the bridge. She couldn't issue engine ignition on her own. I complained I wasn't sure if I could help her, but Alea just said I was qualified enough.

When I had entered the familiar hexagonal room, Alea was again standing in the front of captain's console. She turned her head in my direction, "Come here, I'll walk you through it."

I took Alea's place as she repositioned to another console. Process of starting the engines took only several minutes. The longest part was heating them up. I was painfully aware of each minute. Guards we left outside had to notify someone, and I knew that someone was Twilight. Even though I'd like to deal with that midget soon as possible, I also knew she was powerful and I couldn't handle her alone. Until Luna woke up, I couldn't to anything.

Alea sent me a word the engines were preheated and we could try to ignite them. That was the part I feared the most. From what Alea told me, after the ignition last time, main reactor crashed and she was turned off. What woke her up after those 1000 years remained a mystery for itself.

As I issued the command for ignition, whole ship shook. Monitors flickered and several of them turned off. Alea jumped between navigation and pilot's consoles and was nervously checking the data stream pouring out of them.

"Drive core is about to melt down," she said, "All cooling systems are off."

"Then turn them back on!" I exclaimed, holding onto the handles around the staircase. Vibrations were getting stronger.

"All my systems are getting dark. Go down to the engineering and turn them on manually!" She practically screamed the last words.

I turned on a heel and ran out of the bridge. Alea provided me with a path again. Unfortunately, as I was progressing, her signal was getting weaker.

It didn't take long to reach my destination. I tried to contact Alea, but she didn't respond to any questions. I had to figure out what to do myself.

Engineering wasn't a big room, which wasn't surprising in light of fact the whole vessel was just about three hundred meters in length and one hundred in diameter. Anyway, my problem was with the number of buttons and levers. There were so many. Changelings had to love them unspeakably.

First minute I found myself staring at all of that equipment and then snapped back into reality. I had to find the one to turn on the cooling systems. The drive core could be about to explode, and that could very well mean the end for Crystal Empire as a whole. Fortunately for me, these levers and buttons were labeled with pictures. Bless the one who came up with that. It wasn't anything hard to find the lever and button with snowflake and picture of something that looked like fire spitting tube. Sparks flew as I pressed the breaker down with all my might.

Vibrations got weaker, but the lights went out. I lit up my horn to see a bit better and tried to get back to the bridge. Back tracking wasn't my strong side, though. As I tried to find a familiar corner or door, whole ship moved and I fell down. It seemed like Alea got Little Wrath into the air.

Suddenly, a voice from above attacked my ears, "Chrysalis! You did it! My sensors are limited to very basic stuff, so we are technically flying blind, but we are flying!" I could hear Alea having a good time, probably celebrating our victory. Then lights flickered and turned back on.

Alea led me back to bridge. The power surge that happened, and probably caused the partial blackout earlier, took out few of the monitors. Alea seemed to be damaged a bit as well. Her body was flickering and her voice was full of white noise.

"Alea! What happened to you?" I said immediately after I saw her state. She turned to me, smiled widely and replied, "Nothing, I am just tired."

How can an AI be tired? I didn't ask her anything, just in case she was low on power, so she wouldn't waste her life energy by talking. She did talk on her own anyway.

"Operating whole vessel on my own is hard. I'll have to turn myself off for a while in near future, to regain my strength."

"You mean, you'll need to take a nap. " I said.

As if our situation wasn't bad enough. With Luna unconscious and Alea turned off, there would be no one to help me out in case of emergency.

Alea kept smiling as she was looking at the monitors above us, those that remained at least. They were displaying nothing but endless blue skies. One beautiful day was outside, which was ironic, considering our situation. Ship turned up a bit and accelerated. I knew what was Alea trying to do. We had to get off the planet. Nowhere on it was safe, not with Twilight and her forces everywhere. She wasn't that benevolent as Celestia, who would certainly let us go, when she would see us running. I knew for sure Twilight would try to pursue us if we weren't quick enough. I wouldn't want to underestimate her magical ability. She could probably tear us down from the skies with magic.

Light level lowered down as we punched through the atmosphere. Vibrations got more tolerable as well. On the monitors above me was nothing but dark void filled with small white dots.

We made it.

Alea adjusted the course, so we were running straight towards the Moon. I knew for certain Luna wouldn't be happy if we hit it, or even flew close by. She had some bad memories repressed about that place. From what I heard, it wasn't as empty as pony culture implied. It was actually another planet, with breathable atmosphere and its own flora and fauna, that was hostile to anyone who dared to get close.

We reached the Moon in several minutes and Alea adjusted the course again. We made a maneuver in distance from which the Moon looked like a big cheese wheel. Well, only if you like cheese dyed green, though.

I couldn't hold myself and asked, "Where are we going exactly?"

Alea didn't respond immediately. For first few seconds, it looked like she was ignoring me. Just when I was about to repeat my question, she said, "Given the fact the fleet isn't here, we'll push for the next beacon, uncharted systems." Alea said it such a way nothing that happened concerned her. "There's an interstellar jump gate, situated on the far side of the Moon. Only this way it stays hidden, " she added.

"Isn't Moon moved by Luna every night? Is that gate in the tidal lock with the Moon or something?" I couldn't help myself. Those questions were too appealing to leave them be.

Alea took another moment to process my thought, "No, that's how ponies are told it is. Whole process is reversed. Equestria is moved and everything else remains stationary."

I had a feeling it was like that, but Alea got into explaining, so I let her talk.

"When you look at the orbital picture of Equestria," Alea continued as she produced three dimensional projection of the mentioned planet, "You'll see there are three zones. One of them is on the north and it's more or less frozen whole year, second one is in the middle and makes the territory of central Equestria. Third one are eternal deserts. And that's only the first part." She shifted the picture of the planet to show the other side, the one ponies didn't have mapped. Alea took few steps forward and proceeded with her monologue, "This is the side of Equestria hidden in shadow. It's pretty much frozen to the point of no return and there's no daytime. Ponies never dared to venture that far, but changelings did."

That was interesting. My memories returned to a science class, back when I was younger. Gravity is generated when an object of great mass spins around its axis. If Equestria didn't spin and only shifted its rotation, so the surface of it didn't become either frozen or melted off, what the heck caused the gravitational forces to be present. Alea had only a vague answer to that, "By the measurement of energy presented in Equestria, there's a certain particle field that keeps the whole world together. It also allows its inhabitants to use magic."

My head hurt, but it did make sense in the bigger picture. When Luna overslept one day and Celestia took one day off, Sun and Moon became destabilised and were both in the sky. It lead to other anomalies as well. I perfectly remember one extra heavy payload I couldn't lift, but at that day, it was light as a feather.

Anyway, Alea wasn't done lecturing me. On the other hoof, it was better than uncomfortable silence. Speaking to her, or just listening felt warm inside. It felt familiar, like the piece of my existence I had lost a long time ago when I went to isolation returned and burned with bright flame inside of my chest.

"I'll make a close fly by the Moon and enter the dark side in few minutes. Do you know the Moon used to be thriving with life?"

I had some ideas. From what I heard, one of the Moon's creatures tried to bite off Luna's flank.

Dense gray and greenish atmosphere of the Moon swirling around unknown axis, making a very much familiar patterns visible from Equestria, got disturbed as Little Wrath zipped by. Stabilisation thrusters slowed down our approach and we went on elliptical fly-by around the little planet. I took a peek at the monitors that were showing the direct stream of what was going under us. Moon's atmosphere was full of storm clouds. Down there had to be a hurricane that could tear down even the strongest settlement. How could anything live there? How could Luna survive those thousand years there?

Our vessel quickly closed the gap between the light and the dark side. In the front of us was nothing. I had no idea what was Alea looking for. She kept eyeing the monitors and her own devices, waiting for a clue unknown to me.

The ship moved up and accelerated. Alea apparently found her target. We left the Moon far behind and kept speeding forward.

There was a shadow, remaining motionless in the wholeness of the universe around us. If Alea didn't point out where was I supposed to be looking, I would miss it for sure.

"There is our way out. The gate of my creators." said Alea.

"And my ancestors," I added. "Wait a second, Alea. Did changelings travel to other worlds?"

Alea just looked at me over a shoulder, "Of course they did. Have you ever read any of the banned pony literature? One thousand mysteries from Talcott the Mad?"

I did read that one. Critics had burned most of the copies of this book, just because the author didn't respect Celestia enough. They called him uneducated dog. From what I saw myself over time, Princess Celestia was a sensitive subject to ponies. Anyone who dared to say they didn't worship Celestia's big sunny ass was called a traitor of the land and tortured. And they called changelings savage.

Anyway, back on track. Talcott did his own independent observations and focused on changelings a lot. He was telling anyone who didn't beat him on sight, that ponies and changelings weren't so far away. That each side could learn from each other. In his books, he introduced fascinating facts about the planets beyond, about the dark side of the Equestria, about the conspiracy theories. These were my favorite by the way. I absolutely loved his wacky opinion on every single thing. If it was up to me, I'd give him a comedy award. But, I was with Twilight under one roof during that time, and she didn't like me reading that book. She said books like that were giving me a bad idea how to view pony culture. Well, any book not saying Celestia is the godness and you should give up every possession you have for the glory of Equestria, was bad by Twilight.

Enough about her, though. I hate that midget enough as she is.

Thankfully, Alea took my answer about knowledge of the book and didn't lecture me further. Her light was getting weaker and her shut down was imminent. We had to relocate to safe shallows and turn off the systems to regain strength.

Lights on the front of Little Wrath enlightened a large super structure. It looked like a horse shoe with added spikes on the top of it. When we approached it, I could swear something was watching us from withing the interstellar gate. There were many windows scattered around the hull of it. Apparently, it used to be a station and it housed crew as well. I hoped they abandoned it on their own.

Suddenly, spikes on the top of the gate shifted forward and straightened. With that, several lights on its hull turned on.

"Gate sensors picked us up. We are clear to go through." said Alea.

My brain returned to earlier moments of this adventure. "Where are we going?"

Alea didn't respond immediately again. Her answer wasn't anything reassuring anyway, "I have no idea, but isn't leaping to the unknown territory true adventure?"

I wasn't happy, but before I could say anything, interstellar gate lit up like a Hearts warming tree.

Every color got inverted and my whole existence ceased to be. At least, that's the closest thing to the nauseating state in which I was. I held myself together, trying not to vomit and remain conscious as well.

I found myself on the floor. I didn't know how long was I out, but everything was turned off - Alea, all the monitors and most number of the lights. I went on a trip around the bridge, just to walk off the nausea, not because I'd be interested in anything regarding our current position. It's interesting how your attention shifts when you're are sick on stomach.

When I didn't find anything concerning, I took a walk through the hall behind bridge, peeked in one of the open doors and realised there was a window leading outside. I immediately forgot about anything I had left behind or what happened earlier.

We were successful to run away. We weren't anywhere near Equestria, not even in the same part of the universe. Behind the window was an unknown planet and red nebula I had never seen before. 


	14. Chapter 14

I had a lot of time to explore the Little Wrath.

Alea was turned off, we were running on auxiliary power source, and even Luna didn't wake up to that moment.

The part of the universe we ended up in was nothing like I'd expect. Red and orange nebula was stretched around the place and dense field of space dust was taking the most of the system. The gas planet we were orbiting had three moons, with one almost hidden in the dust fog.

I went to check on my pony friend. It was the first thing I did after I had made sure we weren't in any outside danger. I checked her heartbeat and listened to her breathing. She seemed fine by that observation, outside of fact she wasn't awake more than twenty four hours after she was hit with that spell.

I felt confident enough to try and uncurse her, but with no luck. Technically, she was sleeping so if I managed to do a sleepwalking spell, I could peek in to her consciousness and help her regain control of herself.

I did so. It was the last option I had.

Things started getting weird after.

I lost ability to feel myself, like I was a ghost. I flew through bluish fog and landed on path made out of little white dots. All I could see were doors, appearing and disappearing all around me. I was confused by the bunch of pathways I could take, but I had to come to a conclusion.

I wandered around, trying to find the correct door, when my body stopped on its own. I think I saw a glimpse of blue quickly disappearing in rather ordinary, but nonetheless massive marble doors. I turned on my heel to follow the movement and noticed the mentioned door were opened slightly.

It was dark behind them and only a stripe of light was shining from somewhere. I saw a black shadow coming towards me, and I took a defensive position.

It was Nightmare Moon. She had a malicious grin on her face as she kept staring into my soul. She didn't attack me, she seemed to be even interested in why was I there.

"Chrysalis, my old friend, we meet again." she said in happy and slightly amused tone, "I had a feeling you meant all those mean words you told me."

I had no idea what she was referring to.

"You said I was a monster. That you didn't want to be my fillyfriend anymore."

I stepped up, raised my chin, as I used to do when I was a queen and had to look bigger than I was. "I assure you I did not say such a thing."

Her spell came from nowhere. I had a small moment to block it and redirect its energy somewhere else. It disintegrated into nothingness.

Nightmare Moon kept grinning and even laughed a little, "I see you've become quite a fighter since the last time. Let's say we've called it a truce. Consider yourself forgiven."

Nothing made sense. Why did Luna dream about being Nightmare Moon? What did Twilight did to her?

Luna, or Nightmare Moon led me towards the enlightened door frame on the other side of the room. In it was nothing but grayish fog. I was a bit resilient to follow her, but the fear of losing Luna forever was mightier.

When we traversed the fog barrier, I wouldn't believe on my own I was in a dream.

I wondered what Equestria's moon looked like under all those clouds and this was completely different from what I read.

"Welcome to my mourning castle." said Nightmare.

We were on the pathway to crystal-clear structure, situated on the top of tall hill. Around us was nothing, but gray and blue tinted dust, ranging from small particles to large boulders. Here and there were growing plants of strange shapes with colorless petals. Atmosphere above us looked like it wasn't there at all, like the whole place had eternal night. Although, there was enough light, it was almost unbearable to look at the surface directly. Shortly said, it was the strangest thing.

Nightmare kept her trot up, and I had hard time following. She seemed to know how to navigate the place.

Was this dream induced by the thousand years Luna spent on the Moon? Why did Twilight want to remind my friend of this?

The castle above us was made out of crystallized material. Nightmare probably took the larger dust particles, melded them together with magic and built this place on her own. She had a lot of time to do so. I wondered if this place was real, or just a fantasy. I hoped for the first option.

When I thought of that, how was I supposed to approach this. If I tried to convince Nightmare Moon directly, she'd shoot me. That pony had a temper of fricking filly high on coffee. She was getting irritated just by me being slow.

Well, maybe I could remind her of what she hated the most. If I could make her think she had some business in Equestria, she could try to leave this place. That could be a chance for her to realize nothing here was real.

In time, though. Nightmare Moon had some plans for the next moment and I was curious myself, what she could be itching to show me.

It started to partially make sense, when she had said, "I wondered when my sister would send you here. She has been holding a grudge against you ever since you become my fillyfriend."

I kinda liked that reincarnation of Luna. Nightmare was evil, no doubts about that, but she was acting way more confident. Also, I had no idea Celestia wanted to send me to the Moon. My knowledge of pony history was limited enough as it was, and Twilight's books didn't seem like a good source of information, taking in account how big Celly worshiper Twi was. This could be my chance to learn something as well. Nightmare Moon liked to listen to herself anyway.

"So, what have you been up to last few years?" I started with a question, hoping it sounded nonchalant.

Nightmare didn't even bother to look my way, and proceeded to fill me in, "Apart from being stuck here, I've been cooking a revenge for my glorious return."

"Glorious return?" I immediately grabbed the opportunity to execute my own plan, "How do you exactly want to leave? We are like, I don't know, few million miles away from Equestria."

Nightmare stopped dead in her tracks and glared back at me with one of her eyes with serpent pupil, "There's a prophecy. That stars will help me escape when the time will be right."

"Yeah, and then you'll get face blasted with the Elements of Harmony and get turned into adorable little filly." I pressed on, "What if you didn't wait, you know."

Alicorn before me looked super confused about the things I said. Finally, she managed an answer, "What are you suggesting?"

Heh, kinda reminds me of myself.

I managed to find the right words to explain this whole place was actually just a dream and that she had the ability to dream walk. I told her about the passage I came through and that we could try to get out and wake her up. I lied a bit and told her Celestia did it, that she didn't really send her to the Moon, rather kept her in locked room under close supervision.

Nightmare took all of my words as a fact. She didn't even question why was I here then, and how did I get there. The idea of early return to Equestria was more appealing than details like that. Nightmare Moon got a second wind. Her motivation to execute revenge upon those who harmed her was back in its full strength.

I kinda felt sad I didn't see the castle, as I was leading dark alicorn back where I came from. I hoped Luna wouldn't remember anything about this, that I tricked her in such inappropriate way. She wouldn't forgive me for using her sister as an argument.

I didn't hold anything against Celestia. She was mere tool held in wrong hooves - Twilight's hooves. I presume Celly was just scared of loosing the power over Equestria. I didn't mention it, but her regalia was enchanted. Anyone who wore it was adored by all. Alicorns weren't affected that much, but I didn't know that for sure. Celly used her royal regalia to calm those who followed Luna those thousand years ago. She didn't take them off after, probably just in case of another lunar revolution.

Point was, Celestia's regalia was loosing power and no one knew what spell was used to enchant it. By my observation, the key was the gemstone in it. I actually convinced Celly to let me look at her regalia once. As I held it in my magic, it was creating strange, but familiar vibrations. Dots connected later, when I started studying changeling crystals in the Archives. That wasn't ruby, or anything else, put in the regalia. That was raw sonium. Twilight probably guessed that and used this knowledge to make herself look useful and loyal to harmony in Equestria.

Anyway, back to me and Nightmare Moon.

Where used to be a passage off this twisted dream was nothing. Nightmare kept eyeing me as I was trying to figure out where did exactly 'the weak point' was.

"Are you sure about anything you've said?" Nightmare asked with one eyebrow raised. I didn't say anything, in case she would not appreciate sarcasm I was full of recently.

"Come on, Chrysalis. You saw Luna do it, you know what to do." I said to myself as I lit up my horn and tried to reach out to something I knew that was there.

Suddenly, world cracked and tear in existence opened.

I jumped back and so did Nightmare Moon.

"Well, you wanted a door, there's one." I chuckled slightly, breathing heavily.

Dark alicorn didn't hesitate and jumped through the formed hole. I shouted at her to wait for me and followed closely.

We found ourselves in darkness. Nothing seemed to clear it out, not even light spell. As we were taking steps forward, I hit a stone wall. I forgot there were doors in between the dream world and limbo.

Well, one part of my plan succeeded. But, what about now? How was I supposed to wake Nightmare Moon up?

We entered limbo and around us were those countless doors, each one different and leading to somewhere in the universe.

I had no idea what to do.

Nightmare Moon had her own determination however. She had to decide I was better off alone and that she could find her own path. She walked right into the doors in the front of her nose before I could stop her.

Only seconds later, she sprinted out of them, expression of terror written on her face. I always thought Nightmare Moon didn't fear anything.

From the doors emerged black goo, that only moments after formed into a shadow. Shadow that oddly resembled Twilight Sparkle and King Sombra mashed together.

Were we that unlucky? Was Twilight that smart to prepare a trap in case I tried something like what I just did?

I had dodged a sweeping attack of that monster and used my own magic to slice it in half. It only reformed back to its original size. Nightmare Moon wasn't very brave as she was back stepping down the hall, with her tail low, between the legs.

Monster shifted its attention to her and roared mightily. It seemed like more Nightmare Moon was afraid, it grew in size.

"Leave her alone, freak!" I screamed and blasted monster's raised hoof to bits. It didn't let go of my friend, but something happened.

Nightmare Moon's body started to glow, as she was wrapped in white particles.

Blinding explosion knocked me down and I realised the monster was on retreat. Nightmare Moon was fighting back.

The connection to dream world was suddenly interrupted and I woke up. 


	15. Chapter 15

My vision was blurry and I couldn't make out any solid shapes. I felt like I wasn't breathing for a long time. I turned my head up and realised someone was looking at me from above.

"Hey there, sleepy head," said Luna, pale more than usual, but happy.

I remained motionless as she was nuzzling my cheek gently. Shouldn't I be the one comforting her? Luna pulled me up and hugged my form. I didn't care anymore about anything that just happened, apparently only in my head.

Luna did remember all of the stuff from earlier. She also knew exactly what attacked us in limbo. I was right about the trap set by Twilight. That purple menace knew Luna could figure out something in that dream was off, and that she could break out eventually. For that case, Twilight sent in the hunter of sorts, that would keep anyone trying to escape at bay. I could blame King Sombra for that.

Let me explain. Luna told me, Sombra used a certain spell to keep his slaves in check. That spell reminded anyone under its influence of their worst fears, and Sombra used that as a way of breaking the minds of his followers. Twilight used a similar spell on Luna, but that spell was weak enough to counter its effects with dream magic. When I directly reminded Luna of her importance to me, her true self overcame the spell and Luna woke up.

In the end, it was I and Luna against the world again. Alien ship we were on board of didn't seem to be so big and lonely anymore. I didn't care about anything that happened. Damn the fate of Equestria, damn my ancestors, damn my title. I could live like that, with Luna I mean. We could find a deserted planet and like, start over.

It seemed the whole situation started doing a number on me. Luna thought so as well, that was why she kept apologising for something she could not affect.

More important than my internal struggle was, what would be our next step. We escaped Equestria, great. We were hanging in a void, in completely unknown part of the universe, in ship we had no way of controlling. Pretty dire situation if you ask me.

Luna suggested we should start with the basics. Considering our sudden departure, we had no time to pack necessary equipment and supplies. In any other situation, I'd ask Alea, but that one was out of my reach. We decided on wandering around the ship, in hope we would find a way out of this mess.

As I had predicted, all of the systems not important for immediate functionality of the vessel were turned off. We had no lights, life support was on minimum just to keep us alive, and many doors were on lock down to reinforce structural stability of the hull.

It was like the ship wasn't designed to support crew. I had a theory Little Wrath could be an Ark ship, similar to one that supposedly brought first seeds of knowledge on planet Equestria. Changelings always referred to that part of history. They said the alien creatures once landed on our world to teach our ancestors how to use language properly, how to use technology etc. They also stabilised the day and night cycle and made the planet more livable.

My point is, if I and Luna were on an Ark ship, that would mean there had to be thousands of live pods with changeling lifeforms in them. Unfortunately, that would also mean there wouldn't be any food or water, in digestible form anyway.

The idea of Little Wrath being an Ark came to me once I examined the seemingly empty parts of the ship. To catch you up with facts, the vessel had three floors. Lowest floor was nothing but a cargo bay, filled with crates of an unknown content. Second one was big square room connected to a smaller one. On the backside was an engineering room, along with an engine controllers. Floor above that was another square room, which could be a cafeteria, guessing from tables and chairs littered around the place.

My point? There was about 25 meters of diameter on each side of the ship that had no purpose on first glance. I'd have to ask Alea.

I made a quick trip to the cargo bay I mentioned earlier. I hoped in finding decent number of supplies, but upon examination and cutting open one of the crates, I found out there was nothing but farming tools, survival kits, way out of date medicine and other stuff not really useful at the moment. I could wonder why changelings, who constructed this vessel, didn't think about food. Original crew had to eat something, right?

Upon opening a third crate, I had to recall all the bad stuff I said about poorly planned interplanetary mission. I found an algae nutrition bars. One full crate of rations that could last for hundreds of years, if it was just two of us. I presume it was meant as an emergency supply for a trip back to Equestria, or a hospitable planet.

I gulped one down immediately, without minding weird taste and fact they had to be more than 1000 years old.

I returned to Luna, tossing her one nutrition bar. Her reaction was more cautious than mine, but she did eat it in the end. If we were going to die out of some stomach disease, we would die together.

After that, we had nothing to do. Alea didn't power up to that moment, so the fun level of the ship was below point zero. My lack of imagination led me to suggest I could show Luna the universe outside.

"And how are you gonna do that?" She had no idea about the window I discovered earlier.

It was very strange. Ship this big and had only one window. Changelings probably thought windows were structural weakness and used monitors and scanners everywhere.

When I think of it though, I can't remember if the Hive I used to be a queen of, had anything resembling windows at all as well. I remained in my chambers all the time and only opportunity to leave them was a major issue only a queen could solve.

I led Luna to the room close to the bridge. Her reaction wasn't as priceless as I had hoped for.

"Where are we?" she said.

I explained I had no idea, but it had to be designated point of interest for my people. I told her about the jump gate hidden behind the Moon, how did Alea use it to get us here, and that was why our AI had to take a nap.

Luna kept eyeing my face with an expression of someone terrified and confused at the same time. "So, we aren't in the Equestria anymore and there's no way back." she said.

I nodded.

Luna clearly couldn't wrap her head around the fact I could be excited about something so depressing. For me, it was a new adventure. For her, terrifying truth. Luna wasn't the one to take new things without freaking out in the process. Though, I had to say she was handling that revelation pretty good.

It came out of sudden.

As I and Luna were sitting by the great window, lights in the room flickered and awoke. I could hear all the systems power up again, as the whole ship hummed with excitement.

Familiar voice of Alea greeted us, "Hello again, Chrysalis. Good morning to you too, Luna. You seem to be great today." Alea's green head had peeked around the corner, and she walked in to the hallway. Sleep did her good, as there was no sign of static from earlier.

This greeting was met with mixed feelings. I didn't know how to respond, and Luna wasn't any better. We were just standing there. Alea's cheerfulness wasn't doing any good, not in that moment anyway.

Luna was the first one to recollect, "I've got several questions regarding our position and status. I believe the captain over there," and she pointed towards me with her hoof, "would be similarly interested."

Alea bounced from one leg to another and replied, "I'll happily answer anything you have on your heart, Princess. Let's meet up at the Bridge."

If you excuse me, I'd rather skip several few moment as they were just repetition of something Alea told me earlier. Only interesting fact was something I had suspected. Little Wrath was an Ark.

Alea told us the ship didn't get enough time to gather the whole crew when King Sombra released the onslaught upon Crystal Empire. Most of the citizens that were supposed to board the vessel were probably killed on the way to Hangar. Little Wrath weren't carrying any civilians, neither full crew. Alea explained the original captain issued an order to retreat to cryogenic pods and try to lift off on an autopilot. I couldn't help myself and asked if the thousand years old corpses were still on board. It was more than obvious they had to die. Strange how my brain works sometimes.

Alea took my request more seriously than I had intended. She did confirm, if no one took the original crew out of cryogenic pods, they were still there. Given the circumstances the systems powering the place were out for several years, she wouldn't recommend opening any of the pods. I couldn't agree more. It was one thing to get rid off freshly killed body, like the guards Alea let suffocate earlier. You just throw them in the random box and eject them to space on first occasion. I had a surplus of boxes in cargo bay anyway.

Enough about that, though.

With Alea online, I and Luna had a whole new star system to explore. First of all, our goal was to figure out where we were.

Luna's opinion sounded something like, "I know the stars, but anything closer than that is unknown to me." She had been staring at the star charts Alea provided for more than an hour, and insisted she would figure it out. Strangely, Alea wasn't helpful much as well. Her statement on the matter was, we could end up in any part of the universe in relative cone of effect of the jump gate. Navigation wasn't a thing apparently, or Elders weren't aiming at any particular place. They just wanted to get away and as far as possible. It would make sense, considering there was no visible jump gate on the other end.

I let Luna tend to her devices, because she would get grumpy every time I disturbed her.

Alea put some juice in boosters, so we would remain in place. Our options were to wait for Luna to figure out our position, or to simply jinx it and go for the nearest planet.

Alea implied she could detect a faint signal coming from the nebula. My obvious concern was if we were there alone or not. Our AI friend just said it was next to impossible getting any details without a clear view on the target.

So, I gave an order to get as close as possible to the source of the signal. Unwise decision, but we had nothing to lose anyway.

First analysis of the signal proved its source wasn't the nebula, but rather something orbiting the moon - planet further from us, the one partially hidden in the dust field. Signal had a structure of a warning written in language Alea said she couldn't recognize at the moment. When I took a look at it myself, it strangely reminded me of military signals changelings used during the first war with ponies. I laid that out to Alea.

In the end, we did figure out what the signal was meant to be. It seemed to act as a warning for anyone venturing near the nebula. Only someone who knew the military codes of my people could make that message.

Unfortunately, at the time we decoded the warning, we were already in close proximity to our target. Alea went to maintain stabile orbit around the planet and then joined me back on the top of the Bridge.

At the time of our arrival, Luna showed up and exclaimed she had our position figured out.

"By my calculations, we are about 35 light years from Equestria." she said as she pointed our position on the map Alea provided. The moment she said it, Alea shifted her attention to me.

"I think you were right about the signal. If the original mission description didn't change, original fleet of ships like Little Wrath were destined to hit this particular system. We could likely meet the Elders." announced Alea, excited once again.

The moment of excitement didn't last long though. Once Alea mentioned Elders, the Bridge consoles lit up like the Hearts warming tree.

"What is going on?" asked Luna and I simultaneously. Alea jumped down to navigation consoles.

"Proximity alert! Tracking origin." said Alea.

I hastily joined in at looking for the cause. I wasn't as efficient as our AI.

Suddenly, huge shadow emerged from the dark side of the moon. From my position, it looked like Alea made a great leap towards me and the whole ship turned and shot forward. Maneuver knocked me flat on back, as I wasn't prepared for anything like it.

Alea had went to check on me and apologized. "My bad, sorry. I set the boosters to steady trust and didn't anticipated there could be an orbital station on our intercept trajectory."

"That was a space station?" asked Luna, who same as I, met a floor with her face moments earlier.

I didn't hesitate and gave my next order. "After it! Full sail backwards."

I was prepared for the change of direction this time and even Luna found more stabile position.

Alea made a three degree turn in the opposite direction, so we were heading towards the other side of the planet. This way we would meet up with the orbital station on the other side of orbit.

As we went in that direction, we barely missed a debris field of an unknown origin. Alea performed a scan of it, and to my surprise, they were dating back more than a thousand years. Apparently, there was a massive energy signature keeping the debris on the orbit. Alea held a speculation only one type of thing could do that - a warp engine. It would prove we weren't the first ones there, and that we should be extra careful. Whatever caused the inconvenience to those before us, could still be out there, and we could easily fall into same trap.

Our ship finished the maneuver around the orbit and the sensors picked up the same faint signature as before. Alea didn't ask for my permission to follow the signal this time. It didn't take too long to get the visual on the ancient space station.

It was massive in scope, maybe ten or twelve times bigger than Little Wrath. My rough guess was, there could be dry dock for at least five ships as big as ours.

When we aligned ourselves on stabile course, Alea asked me if she could try to communicate with the station. She was sure there had to be an automated system like herself, operating the station's hardware. I gave her that privilege.

After Alea's broadcast, no response came, but the orbital station we were chasing seemed to slow down. It's windows remained dark and there was no signs of any operating machinery. Suddenly, my ears got filled with white noise and I collapsed on my knees.

*This sector is not what you seek. You won't find home, nor safe shallows. Leave before the blight swallows you whole.*

"Captain!" I could hear Alea through the ghastly voice that kept repeating weird words, filling my vision with images of blood red skies and dead bodies of changelings. Pain attacking my brain was almost unbearable.

There was a flash of light and everything cleared out. I couldn't hear the disembodied voice anymore. Luna stood above me, horn lit up, expression of terror in her eyes. "Are you alright, Chrysalis?" she asked, more pale than me at my best.

How could I be alright after something so vivid?

"I'll live. What was that?" I rolled on my back, taking deep breath. Ceiling seemed comforting enough in that moment.

Alea came up with an explanation in second, "Signal beacon, either from the the station, or some other wreck floating around the orbit. Space radiation had to do a number on the transmitter."

Luna helped me up. I could feel my legs tremble. Whoever designed such a thing had to be put in chains and starved to death. Luna seemed to share my opinion.

"There's not only one?" asked Luna. She was referring to the wrecks of an ancient vessels Alea mentioned.

"Negative," verified Alea, "There's at least three more debris fields floating around here. Each one is from the roughly same time, considering their velocity."

Well, I knew for sure we were dealing with Elders, my ancestors. Seconds thing, there was some form of disaster that happened during their approach to this planet. Considering I had no idea how many vessels the original fleet contained, apart from six Arks, I couldn't tell how many could survive the possible landing on the surface of planet bellow. Someone had to survive, and live long enough to build the orbital station and setup the warning. Whoever was down there, they had to be still alive.

"Alea, set the course to dry dock on the orbital station." I said. Alea jumped from one pair of legs to another and nodded.

"If there's one, consider it done, captain."

One last thing that happened before we boarded the station was probably the most surprising.

As we approached the dry dock, my head started resonating again and the same voice announced, "Chrysalis boarded Serenity. All stations secure."

I had a lot to think about for the rest of the day. 


	16. Chapter 16

Before we agreed on exploration of the orbital station, Alea performed a scan of the environmental stability. When her analysis didn't return anything out of order, she said we were clear to engage in exploring. Her only recommendation was we would bring environmental protection suits, just in case. That proved to be a problem.

You see, I could fit in one of the suits no problem, as there were few designed especially for someone of my size. Luna was about 0.75 of my size, so the suits made for alicorns were too big. The other way around, the smaller ones, for standard changeling workers, were just too tiny. Luna went in a way of 'fuck it', and with the help of her magic, she managed to squeeze herself in one of the worker suits, after several minutes of swearing and kicking the ground.

Shortly said, we were ready.

Station was dark on the inside. Joined streams of light from mine and Luna's horn were just about enough to provide enlightenment to see clearly.

First thing I noticed were burn marks on the walls and hanging cables from just about every missing piece of the ceiling.

"This place got hit hard," made Luna a comment on the desolate state of our surroundings.

"Whoever lived here before, they weren't gentle beings." I added and returned Luna the long stare she was giving me a while already.

"Your people?" she asked. I could only nod.

"You don't know the half of it. When changeling goes into state of delirium, they become savage and attack anything in sight. Friend of foe, it doesn't matter anymore."

Luna shivered at the thought of having her throat ripped apart by some starving beast. She hastily peeked around the near corner and whispered, "Let's hope it wasn't the case here."

It was so typical we were once again thrown in the darkness. Our situation strangely reminded me of the Archive exploration, back in the Crystal Empire. This time however, I couldn't deny a weird feeling we were being watched. I tried to convince myself there was nothing to fear about.

My suit's radio picked up a transmission and a jumped few feet up.

"Check, check. You there, Captain?" I hoped Alea didn't do it intentionally.

"My stars, Alea! Ow, my heart." I cursed loudly and I could hear Alea giggling a bit on the other side of wire.

"I am sorry, Captain. I just picked up a movement on the other side of station. There's something with you in there. Assume hostiles," announced Alea, now with more serious tone.

"Got it." I acknowledged the information and the radio went silent again.

"I am all for scary things, but this is straight up terrifying," said Luna, her voice going up to childish pitch. I didn't feel that confident to reassure her everything would turn out fine.

"If anything shows up, hit it with strongest spell you know. I'll do the same," I told Luna, grabbed her hoof and put my chin on her shoulder. That's how queen of the hive showed the selected warriors she had a complete faint in them. Gesture that meant little to me, and nothing to Luna. It seemed to give both of us strength, though.

Our fear and Alea's expectations got confirmed when we had found a green moss, growing seemingly without a cause on the walls around us. Whole orbital superstructure seemed more massive than it was from the outside and it reminded me of big metallic donut of all things. We were in the middle of the station, somewhere around the center of the middle floor.

As we were getting closer to the core rooms, green moss and webs from unknown material were getting thicker and thicker. I couldn't match anything I saw before to things I could see there. I had a general idea about the origin of the moss 'decoration'. They were changeling in nature. Historical records were talking about them.

My mind was being filled with static noises again. I could hear a thousand voices trying to make a contact.

*feed us*  
*we are starving*  
*be our queen*

I shivered when the last words hit my consciousness. I took a peek in Luna's direction, but she didn't seem to be affected.

Suddenly, I caught a movement in the corner of my eye and immediately realized those voices weren't just a hallucination. Behind us, in front of us, on both the sides, there were white and black shadows crawling towards our location.

Luna screamed as one of creatures landed just few feet from us with loud hissing.

I could guess it used to be a changeling in the past. There was nothing but yellowish skin and bones. Its eyes were nothing but black holes with white glowing serpent pupils.

Creature hissed again and exposed its massive, razor sharp teeth. I stood in the front of Luna, and hissed back at the mutated changeling. I used to do that when some of my minions didn't want to listen to me.

*feed us*

Thoughts of hundreds of other creatures like the one before me, touched my consciousness like hot blade. I was hesitant to open myself to them, to share the love I accumulated over the last month. It was that or fight. I and Luna weren't going to survive the second option.

So, I did something I didn't do for a long time. I opened my mind and let the love magic flow through the room.

Tension lowered and creatures seemed to calm down. More and more of them was showing up, they were coming from every corner of the station to feed on the love I was offering. I could feel them joining to union I just formed. I felt like a queen again.

Suddenly, all of it was gone. Conjoined minds of bone changelings disintegrated as fast as they appeared. Room around me and Luna was dark again and only several shadows were creeping on the walls.

I knew those creatures were still out there, watching us. I also knew for sure, if there were changelings, there had to be a queen. Queen that didn't give a damn about her people, queen who could starve her subjects to death.

"Luna?" I asked as I turned to my blue friend. "What if we paid a visit one fellow changeling queen?"

Luna didn't even let me finish. "Don't even suggest such a thing. Let's pack up our stuff and get the heck out."

I took a step towards the darkness, making it clear I wasn't leaving. "I need answers. If you are not going, return to ship."

I felt like I was a bit hard on Luna, but I had to be the dominant one from time to time, or else everyone would assume I had gone soft.

I kinda expected her to turn on heel and return to Little Wrath. Instead, she joined my side and glared at me, like it was all my fault, for the rest of our trip to upper levels.

Cobweb-like strings, were cowering most of the walls in that moment. As we were going deeper to stations center, where its supposed reactor was located, it was only getting thicker. Alea warned me about possible hostile activities in the area we were headed in, but I was way too curious to just let this opportunity go.

Unfortunately, our progress was disturbed by someone I didn't expect to see.

There were 8 queens, each one had a Hive of her own. There were 7 ships, ready to leave Equestria, but only 6 took off. Last one didn't, because her queen was too much of a coward to face her destiny. That last queen's name was Chrysalis.

"Chrysalis! How dare you show your face around here?" said the queen, that stood on the top of a platform above us. She was well hidden in the shadow, so I couldn't see her face, or any part of her body to be honest. Her voice was strangely familiar to me.

*I am sitting on the cold marble floor, back in the Crystal Empire. I am young hatchling again and it's my big day. There are 8 new queens elected today. One of them turns to me, giggles and says, "Hi, my name's Erasten. I hope we'll be good friends.*

Flashback ended and I could just say the last word I heard. "Erasten? Is that you?"

Erasten herself didn't even bat an eye on the revelation. She remained in the same hostile, and completely alien pose. Stream of light hit her form and I realised she looked worse than her subjects. That wasn't the friendly filly I used to know. She had bone white skin, parts of her chitin armor missing on large portions of her body, so you could see the bones and dried flesh. Her eyes were black as well, very much similar to those of her subjects. The mane she used to have had fallen off, and where it remained, it turned to grayish, mossy ropes.

I couldn't say a word, not even move a muscle, as the creature from the worst nightmare of mine approached me slowly.

Sudden moment of silence was interrupted by a clear voice of Alea in my head. "Captain, the area you are in is dangerous." I didn't have the strength to be sarcastic and let the AI speak, as I was taking steps backwards. "The station reactor is breached and will detonate in short time."

Good, we had an excuse for not staying over for dinner.

"One thousand years passed," exclaimed Erasten, "Hundreds of generations died, just to be reborn in greater form. Just to build the world and retake our heritage." She went completely nuts over the years, she wasn't the filly I used to know.

"Where are the others?" I asked, trying to buy us time before we would have to run for our lives. I wasn't exactly afraid of Erasten, but I couldn't be sure what would she do to Luna.

Erasten took the prompt and continued with her monologue, "Seven Arks dared to venture far into the great unknown. Three of them, didn't find the peace."

Alea, who was listening on the same channel, whispered in my ear, "That would seem accurate. There were three debris fields on the orbit."

Erasten stopped her approach towards us, "Rest of the fleet, unhappy with the result, landed on the first planet they could reach. Soon after, the words of bright future were spoken and this station was forged from the ashes of our failures."

With the time bomb in form of nuclear reactor, I didn't have much of a choice and hope someone else would tell me the rest of Erasten's story.

Whole station shook in its roots as something massive unleashed the Hell fire. I could swear I heard lower level getting blasted to bits by beginning nuclear detonation.

"We have to get out of here, or we are a toast." I exclaimed, interrupting Erasten in her monologue. She didn't take that lightly.

Erasten hissed and her horde attacked. Luna and I got separated as we were fighting off the savage changeling mutants. Erasten laughed in the manner of evil people. "Your actions hurt our race as a whole. Those who died because of you, will be avanged." screamed Erasten and joined the battle.

I was blasting the mutants one by one. I could easily beat them, as I was at the top of my strength. My determination to help Luna, the one soul remaining by my side after so many years, was making me even stronger.

Erasten pushed through the fallen and attacked me directly. Her beam spell was much weaker than Celestia's back then in Canterlot. I pushed in and the fight was over.

Erasten's horn exploded in the pile of ashes and she screamed in pain. Green drops of her blood were everywhere in sight.

A blazing white explosion knocked out the windows and huge decompression threw me across the room. Bone changelings, already fragile, were thorn apart by the explosion. I was barely holding on to the remains of the rooms frame. My suit automatically sealed itself and the sounds of burning station and clashing metal got muted, as the atmosphere escaped the area. I let go of the rusted beam and let myself float in zero gravity. Beep in my ear notified me suit thrusters were initiated and I could start controlling my movement.

I realised too late I couldn't see Luna anywhere. I called her over the radio, but only static answered me. In panic, I went over the ruined 'throne room'. Without gravity it was much easier to navigate. I realized how lucky I was my suit didn't get damaged during the battle.

"Chrysalis to Little Wrath. Do you read?" I tried Alea as my last option.

"I got your signature. Are you alright?" Alea's voice was very much a sound for sore ears, if I could say so myself.

"What is your status?" I asked, "Is Luna with you?"

"Ship's alright, captain. I moved her to safety few moments before the explosion. For Luna, I see her beacon. Marking it on your HUD."

Luna's signature was more than three hundred meters away. She had to get catapulted through the exploded window and wasn't as lucky as I was.

I swam through the empty space, dodged every piece of glass and eventually saw what I was looking for.

Glimpse of blue tail was stuck between two pieces of floating debris. In the moment I got closer, Luna moved, as if she was trying to get out of place.

My radio was silent, but it was more or less clear Luna was screaming on top of her lungs. She had her head and half of the chest stuck between torn pieces of metal. It seemed like the force of the explosion pressed together floor and ceiling, with Luna in between.

I knew she couldn't hear me, but I still tried to calm her down, so she would stop twitching. I proceeded to cut the debris to pieces with my magic. It wasn't easy, as I was tired from all the fighting earlier.

Luna was hurt. She had broken both of her wings and was in shock. The environmental suit wasn't damaged, luckily. She would suffocate if that would happen. As I lifted the piece of metal that was holding her down, she turned her head towards me. Her face was pale from the pain and she didn't look good.

Poor Luna. Why always her?

I tried to lift her up, so I wouldn't have to touch her broken wings. She tried to say something, but that was it. I knew she was talking, but thanks to her broken radio, I couldn't hear anything.

"Alea? Can you pick us up?" I called.

Alea didn't say anything. Instead of an answer, Little Wrath slowly raised from behind the remains of the station. Alea initiated an approach towards us and my eyes were seeking the airlock we could use to board our ship.

Luna fainted on me. 


	17. Chapter 17

Alea moved Little Wrath on the other side of an orbit, outside of the radioactive dust field, formed after the orbital station fell apart completely.

From the explanation of Alea, the station exploded because of us. She had performed several scans, just before I and Luna went on the adventure, and she found out the main reactor was faulty. Either damaged by the time in space, or something else. Thus, entering the station made the reactor to start up, and run towards its end. Also, we didn't detect any life signs before boarding, because there weren't any. Those changelings had to be in stasis, and their wounds weren't caused by excessive hunger, but rather the radiation that had been leaking from the reactor for last thousand years.

Shortly said, mystery solved on our end. How it was in reality, nobody would be able to find out.

More adventures were out of question. Luna had both of her wings broken. She had woken up, and Alea fixed the bones with medical equipment on board. She wouldn't be able to move properly for few days. She'd have to remain at the infirmary, because she had to have her wings in special fixture, so they would heal properly. Alea could do miracles, however, even that skill wouldn't give back Luna's ability to fly. Broken bones were easy, destroyed neural links were not. Luna's wings were to remain folded on her back, and in time she might be able to unfold and spread them, but that was it.

As I found out, wings were important and sensitive part of Luna's body, almost as sensitive as her horn. She wasn't as fortunate as me, who could lose a limb and survive, with said limb growing back in weeks, if enough nutrition was provided.

Luna was shaken by the near death experience. She couldn't swallow the fact she survived the battle and then got crushed by a ceiling. She didn't even want to talk at all after waking up.

So, I asked Alea to set a stabile orbit, we had to wait for Luna to recover. I could use some rest as well, but I would rather do something, than just sit around. More mysteries were out there to uncover.

There were seven Arks, each one with a queen and her subjects. Three didn't survive, and one queen just died on orbital station. That would mean there were three more somewhere around. Either on local planet, or more stations. My curiosity was high again.

After asking Alea to teach me how to operate the scanning systems, I could perform a research on my own. It was also something Luna could do, without complaining about the crippling pain in her back every five minutes. I learned how to read ancient words of my people, and after a day or so, Luna could do so as well. It wasn't that hard, really. One reading the words just had to focus hard.

Anyway, scanning the background of the solar system we were in proved to be interesting. There were several transmissions a day, each one with different origin and purpose. Of course, I was unable to catch their true meaning, but after observing long enough, I could be sure there were more changelings out there than ponies in Equestria. Or, so it seemed like it.

I asked Alea to move the ship to several origin place of such transmissions. Not a single one of them were broadcasted by real people. Once we got closer, we found a wreck or really old satellite. Of course, that meant there had to be receivers out there, and those receivers could at least tell what happened. So far, it seemed the creators of those machines just vanished without a trace. Well, it was almost a thousand years. I shouldn't be surprised there would be nothing but bones.

Luna's wings were getting better. She had them loose, hanging on sides of her body, like a blue feather blanket. They at least didn't hurt anymore.

Luna appreciated the relieve, but was sad she had lost the ability to fly. I tried my best and told her I would carry her if she ever wanted to experience flight again. It made her feel better. 


	18. Chapter 18

With Luna healed up, ship in great condition, there was nothing that could stop us from going on an another adventure. Problem was, where to go.

There were three or four planets in the system, plus several moons that could house a settlement.

So, we spent days just to try to pinpoint the location of interest. In the end, we were successful, sort of.

There was a significant amount of energetic signatures on moon, around which the exploded orbital station and wrecks of the Arks were orbiting. It made sense in the end, considering what Erasten told us. Elders were in dire situation, so they just landed on the first world they could reach.

I wondered what we would find.

Alea did some analysis of the moon. It returned some basic ideas what we would have to deal with.

Magnetic radiation was present, that was good. I didn't mention that, but this kind of radiation made us to be able to use magic at all. Other worlds in the system didn't have it.

Moon's surface was mountainous, rich in materials like marble, metallic ores and isotopes. Only the atmosphere seemed to be less life supporting. From what Alea told me, it had about 25 percent less oxygen than Equestria. Though, we were talking without any observation and analysis, so the real situation could be different, for worse or better.

I decided to jinx it. We were landing on that world.

I slipped in my EVP suit. Luna decided to give a suit for alicorns try this time, and it proved to be less stressful, as shrinking the suit seemed to work better than making it inflate like a balloon.

I and Luna were on bridge, Alea standing by our side. We were like an explorers, seeking new lands and wealth. Partially true, that sentence.

Anyway, we were about to go through the atmosphere and see what remained of my ancestors.

"Initiating main boosters. Prepare for planet fall in two minutes." announced Alea, face of determination on.

My gut felt a bit out of place, when the moon got so big it was taking our whole field of view. We couldn't see anything, but huge orange and green surface of the moon, and white clouds, swirling in unique patterns I didn't see anywhere else.

"Contact in 10 seconds. Brace yourself," said Alea.

Little Wrath lit up, as green energy shield made out of small hexagons wrapped its surface. There was nothing but fire visible. And then all the monitors and lights turned off.

Before anyone could ask what was going on, Alea explained, "Don't worry. I just turned off all non essential systems to conserve energy."

After a minute or so, everything turned back on. We were through.

"Shields are on 45 percent. Good job," appreciated Alea her own piloting skills.

"Great job, Alea," I added.

Luna didn't say anything.

"So, anything new?" I asked, so we weren't wasting time.

"I am detecting active traces of technology about one thousand clicks south from our location. Setting the course." said Alea, as I could feel the ship dropped down and changed direction.

We were blasting on half speed towards the epicenter of the strongest transmission we had received.

When we covered about the half the distance, our scanners picked up an unknown signature, tracking our movement. I said that fact aloud and Alea went to examine it.

In the end, no analysis was needed. Sudden flash connected our ship's right side and huge explosion followed. Our shields blocked off the incoming damage and we were thrown of track.

"Evasive maneuvers!" I screamed on the top of my lungs as I grabbed the first handle I could find.

Little Wrath dropped several hundred feet down. Two another shots missed us by the string of the hair. After that, nothing happened.

"Damage report!" I started getting my job as a captain, even though time to be proud of myself didn't come yet.

"Shields are holding, captain. We've got 20 percent left," said Alea.

In the meantime, there was Luna loosing her mind, "My stars, great Moon and all above, let us survive this madness." I would never guess she was into this stuff.

What ever was shooting at us, lost its lock-on once we crossed the distance of two miles. I asked Alea for suggestions, as she had more than theories at the moment.

"If my records of Elder defensive screen are correct, we could try to approach at low degree. That way, they won't be able to get a lock on." said Alea.

"How dangerous is that maneuver?" I asked immediately. "Can our ship pull that off?"

Alea gave me a look of disappointment and stood into proud pose. "Is that doubt I hear, captain? I am the best pilot around. I can do it with my eyes closed."

I didn't want to make a dare out of Alea's bragging. She would kill us just to prove me wrong. On one end, she called me captain, on the other one she felt no responsibility for the crew.

I reacted accordingly, " Just take it slow and easy. Don't do anything stupid, Alea."

I didn't clear her suspicion I wasn't taking her skills seriously, but it seemed she did lower the pace our ship was going at.

Little Wrath made a sharp leap. Orange clouds swirled all around us, as we were loosing altitude.

I had no idea why Elders chose this world of all, because seriously, it was nothing but wasteland. Orange, pink, yellow and white dust covered the surface under us. Environmental scanner didn't even want to suggest this planet was habitable at all. For temperature, it wasn't half bad. Assumed values were actually a bit cooler than most deserts back home, but still. Even if temperatures didn't kill me, lack of oxygen, food and water probably would, unless Elders had found a way to solve the problem. We were talking about people who had built the very space ship we were flying, while the other Equestria' species didn't even know, how to make a light bulb.

Again, Alea did tell me Elders didn't have much of a choice during their time of arrival, as half of their fleet didn't survive first steps of the journey, and those remaining started a war. Fricking changelings and their tendencies to argue.

Alea lowered the speed as much as possible without us falling off the skies, because on the horizon, in the small opening, could be seen the first towers of the changeling settlement.

When I say towers, I mean pylons of some sort. I kind of remember similar things in the Crystal Empire, which shouldn't be a surprise at this point, because the Empire did use to be a changeling capital.

Overall, the settlement was placed in the middle of small crater. The hole itself was probably caused by a meteor, with three sides of it raised above surface and one dug down, like for a use as supply road, or something very similar. Area around the crater was surprisingly flat, except for few low hills.

AA gun that had to be shooting at us was situated above the structure, on the raised edge of the crater. In that moment, it looked dead, like the rest of the construction.

Assumptions there was nothing, were wrong. Alea picked up clear network communication within the automated systems in the close vicinity. There had to be more of similar constructions on the surface.

"Shall I land here, or attempt to get as close as possible?" asked Alea suddenly.

I woke up from my thinking, "I'd find a safe spot and go on foot," I then turned to Luna, who was awfully quiet since entering the atmosphere.

She just stared at me and then said, "Hey, don't look at me. You are the captain of this madness. Just don't kill us, please."

I smiled, like it was exactly the thing I wanted to hear, "Alright, crew has spoken. Alea, choose suitable LZ in close proximity and stand by for orders. We are going to prepare."

I and Luna left the bridge, while Alea got to scanning the flat surface to find a big enough landing zone in distance we could cross in less than few minutes.

I hoped I could find something to add to my EVP suit, as the standard gear was limited to flashlight, medkit, ration bar and scanner only. I'd feel much more comfortable if I could get my hooves on one of the fancy magnetic accelerators Elders used to have during my young years. Little Wrath didn't have any hoof held weapons on board, unfortunately. Oh well, it seemed like I'd have to rely on magic again.

With a thundering sound, Little Wrath landed in the middle of nowhere. Our hull was well hidden behind the dunes.

Alea sent me an echo we were all set. I acknowledged the fact and proceeded to airlock.

When the door opened, slight decompression hit my face. Outside was nothing. I felt coldness crawling up my spine, which was weird considering we were indeed in a desert. I ran quick scan to reveal the ingredients in the atmosphere, and found out it was 25 percent nitrogen, 30 percent hydrogen, 10 percent oxygen and 33 percent carbon dioxide. Last two percent was a long list of mixed rare gases, namely argon, chlorine, sulphur and some radioactive isotopes. When looking at the chart, I had a feeling I could breath that stuff, for a limited amount of time at least. Changelings didn't need that much oxygen as ponies, and thanks to the chitinous nature of our skin, we could even survive in vacuum with just a breathing apparatus.

We crossed the line of shadow cast by Little Wrath. Air around us got warmer by a significant amount. I quickly glanced on a thermometer to find out the temperature raised just barely above 275 degrees Kelvin. Still that was a huge raise, as in the shadow was just around 260.

Anyway, I could feel the buzz of distant communication again, like when Little Wrath approached the space station. I anticipated another warning, or secret message, but nothing came. Radio channels and my mind were both clean of interference.

Luna closely followed. She wasn't fond of any more exploring after the last adventure. I could understand why, she did lose her ability to fly, after all. On the other hand, I had asked her if she wanted to follow me around, and she agreed.

When we had approached first pylons of the changeling construction, I noticed there was a torn up fence in between of the towers. I wonder if local weather could do such a thing, or if there was something else with us.

"Who broke the fence?" asked Luna, as if she could read my mind.

Before I could form an answer, ever listening Alea jumped in, "Local storms are one suggestion. They tend to have winds with speed over 500 miles per hour, guessing from atmospheric data we've got."

I couldn't help it and poked into the topic, "Heh, if fence can't handle a bit of wind, how are those tall towers still standing?"

Alea didn't respond to that immediately. After a minute or so, she came back, her voice filled with small amount of annoyance, "I've run some scans and those pylons aren't standing on their own. They seem to be part of much bigger structure, buried underground, having a foundation of about 25 feet."

Alea sent me a picture of her scans as a proof. What we were seeing above ground was about 60 percent of total length of the pylon. Its pyramidal shape raised above the sand it was buried in, and its square foundation allowed it to withstand even the strongest winds.

Luna and I crossed the supposed line, formed by the tall pylons, paying attention to the torn up pieces of metallic fence. Injuring one's hoof with such a thing wasn't a laughing matter. It seemed the towers and the base were built out of the same material as the Archive in the Crystal Empire was. Either Elders brought materials with them, or they had a way of transforming sand into marble. Deposits of such a material were deep underground, and would require a lot of digging to get through. Well, maybe I was underestimating my ancestors, but from my point of view, it seemed impossible.

Apart from fact that settlement's defensive screen tried to kill us, I'd say we walked into a ghost town.

There were three entrances in total. Two of them were broken to bits and pieces. I examined one of them, while Luna went to have a look around the courtyard.

Luna returned with a strange container withing her magic grasp. I was just done with my own examination which, unfortunately, turned to be a waste of time. There was no way the airlock could work in a state it was in. External door in pieces, console fried, and internal barrier weld together, so no one could open them.

I averted my glance of the broken airlock and took the cylindrical container of Luna's possession.

"Where did you find it, Luna?" I asked my friend, while I tried unscrew the top of the cylinder.

"Next to a rubble of metal, just in the middle of a field. It looked off there, so I took it," replied Luna, gleaming with happiness I didn't dismiss her finding.

"Interesting," I half whispered and put more force on the rusted cap, "Come on!"

Suddenly, cylinder's top snapped off and flew away. With a clink, it landed on the roof of the building next to us.

I stood there, eyes wide open, with the now opened container, steaming a little, because my magic heated it up. Luna started laughing, but calmed down rather quickly.

Inside of the container was a barrel with six Sonium crystals loaded in it. There were some electronics as well, considerably more advanced than anything I was lucky to study.

I reached for one of the crystals with my magic, but there was no response. I mean, I grabbed and held the crystal, but nothing happened. No memories, no data. That crystal was wiped clean. Same situation repeated itself with all the other crystals. Whoever left the container out there, removed any data before hand.

I tossed the cylinder behind my back, "Well, it was worth the try. Let's go."

Luna went ahead, her shyness and fear of exploring from earlier completely gone. She even seemed to be enjoying herself out of sudden.

On the other hand, the grave silence was making me nervous. I weren't used to that. Hive back home always buzzed with life, and not just literally. Changelings use a close proximity communication called Hive Mind. It's the evolved version of the thing queen of a beehive uses. It allows me as a queen to feel my subjects, their needs, their emotions, and even assume control over their body if such a need is risen.

Anyway, that's enough lecturing for a while at least.

I had a feeling the walls around us were very much alive. I could feel countless eyes on me, but my ears weren't picking any sounds. Only a slight breeze was going by me.

I looked at my suit in a desperate need to see something familiar. Its grey and green surface was covered in yellow and orange dust. I had tried to wipe the dust of me, but it was sticky, and I couldn't get it off.

Another being in the EVP suit approached me.

"Chrysalis? Are you feeling well?"

Oh, Luna. My sweet Luna.

"Yeah, sorry. I think I've spaced out a bit," I tried my best to stay calm. Luna was the last thing in this strange world I had left. I didn't want to make her worry too.

Where did the last feeling come from? I wasn't going crazy, was I? Could changeling magic do that? Could the world itself be the cause?

I had enough of standing around. I tapped Luna on the shoulder and stood up.

"Where are we headed?" she asked, with unmasked curiosity.

"Inner chambers," was my simple reply.

I didn't want to go through what was going in my head. Especially things that kept coming from my consciousness after I and Luna had reached the first working airlock on the other side of courtyard.

Airlock systems powered up the second we got near it. Elders had to set to power saving mode, for obvious reasons really.

What came as a surprise though, I couldn't understand a word the automated system said. It wasn't as much of an important issue, just because it didn't want anything of me, or Luna. It just made those buzzing and growling sounds, scanned us, the door opened and we were let in.

I contacted Alea and informed her about the issue of understanding the Elder language.

"Interesting. You really can't understand a word you hear?" said Alea in my ear, light static in her voice. We were getting out of reach.

"No, and it's weird," I had a feeling I needed to reassure my AI friend, so she would take me seriously.

"Well, technically it just means whoever built those systems, wanted to prevent anyone from being able to understand them. I'll analyze the dialect and send you an updated version of your translator," said Alea, who at this point agreed on anything just to be useful to us. Sitting in the ship alone was probably making her feel uncomfortable.

It didn't take too long for my HUD to beep, signaling Alea finished her job. World around me swirled and all the ancient texts on the walls averted themselves to somewhat normal letters. Luna almost seemed shocked, once she realised she could read them without effort, for a first time ever.

That building was inside pretty much similar to the orbital station we were on earlier. Most patterns were hexagon based, walls were adored with built in green lights. I had a feeling those lights weren't lights at all, but rather cables of some sort. It wouldn't come off as a surprise really, I saw what were Elders capable of.

Luna had to be so confused. I was, in fact a changeling, so anything technology based wasn't anything I couldn't wrap my mind around. Luna though, she was used to candles and medieval life in general, not even considering she spent her better years on the Moon, and all the technological advancements ponies achieved were completely alien to her. More about the broken microwave later...

She was taking it all in pretty well, to be honest.

Anyway, as we were walking through the empty hallways, I could feel the buzzing again. It was a distinct noise above all the sounds my ears were picking up. When I say noise, believe me, there was a lot of it. Hissing pistons, buzzing fans of air systems, flickering lights. However, non of these had the sour note I could feel right inside of my brain.

Luna was too busy looking around to notice anything was wrong again. I instinctively tried to block of the white noise filling my mind with repeated messages that made no sense. Words long lost, with no meaning at all, yet so strong it could break the toughest warriors of all. That was the power of the Elders. That power was the source of their might, and a reason no one tried to take on them directly for so long.

I broke free from the grasp of a shadow occupying my mind. "Think of something happy, something present, something real..." I whispered to myself, "Think of Luna."

I had to look like a complete loco in that moment. The truth wasn't far away from that though, so it was least of my concern. How could I just walk up to the Elder leader, when just their influence made my knees tremble?

Luna finished up her exploration and turned to me, to find out why I was lagging behind again. When she had noticed my state from earlier had returned, she ran up to me immediately. I could feel her hoof touching the outside of my helmet, as she was trying to comfort me.

"I am here, Chryss. Talk to me, please. Snap out of it!" She pushed me slightly.

I mumbled something and raised my eyes towards her. I could feel the tension inside of my chest.

"If it happens one more time, we are going back! Screw this mission! It's not worth losing your mind over!" practically screamed Luna in my face. I had to agree with her on that one, but I still wanted to find out what really happened.

I stood up with Luna's help. Interestingly, I couldn't remember getting on my knees. My vision was blurry, but at least the white noise and sickening images were gone. Whoever sent them, thought I had enough for a time being.

"You sure you are up to this?" asked Luna again, "I've meant what I've said."

I nodded. I had to find a way, "It doesn't matter if I am up to the task, Luna," I said finally, "If we won't get to the point where we can get help from my ancestors, we are never going to see Equestria again. You know what that means?"

I paced around the room. Luna's eyes were following my every step.

"Twilight Sparkle wins! I can't let that midget get to power. Who knows what she would do," I finished up the original thought that was troubling me since we left Equestria.

Luna smirked at my reasoning, "Heh, I knew Twilight was behind it. I wouldn't worry that much, there's still my sister, Auntie Cadence and her husband, Element bearers, and hundreds of independent creatures standing behind the cause." Luna laughed a bit, probably just to easy the tension.

Her list of names didn't help at all. I knew how easy it was to get me and Luna out of the way. Twilight could do the same with Celestia, and with the power of my ancestors, no one would be able to resist her mind. She even could break me with the same power if she wanted to. I got the taste of that mere moments ago, and it almost drove me insane.

The situation was resolved by Alea, who acted like she was unaware of anything going on, "Captain, I detect increasing energy output on the other side of the structure. I presume you should hurry and wrap things up."

"Thanks, Alea," said Luna this time and grabbed my hoof, "Let's get going."

I couldn't believe it. It was Luna who was dragging me along. It felt almost like a paradox after those times I had forced her to take the steps she didn't want to.

Area around us extended itself. It wasn't a hallway anymore, it reminded me of the large gathering room I used to have in my Hive. Technically, one giant circular room with bunch of pillars, illuminated by dim green lights. It was exactly the same here, with the only exception those green lights weren't gooey bio-luminiscent drops changeling drones would produce, but real electric lights.

I had subconsciously compare my Hive structure and everything built by my ancestors. The conclusion I was getting to was a simple one, really. Changelings might have gone a long way, but on the inside, we were still the same bugs.

Luna let go of my hoof, because she got an impression my ill state had worn off. True, but I appreciated the heat of her body. We walked in silence, ceiling full of fake stars high above us.

Alea suddenly spoke up, "You are reaching a maximum depth of 100 meters. My scanners are blind below this threshold. Be careful, you two!"

"Thanks, Alea," I mumbled my usual, before I fully realized, what she just said, "Wait, you've said 100 meters? That much?"

"That's correct. You were descending the whole time you were there. I can't provide more than a warning the deeper you go, more unstable the structure seems to be, and levels of radiation are increasing, fast. Watch your HUD and yourself."

"Copy, Alea. Hang on tight," said Luna.

I could hear Alea giggle over the radio, before her end went silent.

"We are really doing this, aren't we?" asked me Luna, when we reached a long flat platform with a deep drop and marble staircase on its end.

"Well, there's no turning back. This adventure might drive me crazy, but I want my answers," I replied half to myself, as I started going down the stairs.

Luna closely followed, asking another question, "What are you looking for exactly? For a long time, you've been mentioning these questions and answers of yours, but you've never told me what are they about."

Ouch, personal interview. How could I answer such a thing? I didn't even know what I was doing for past few days.

"Luna, to be absolutely honest, I don't know. Maybe, " I stopped for a moment to examine one of remaining electric lights on the wall on my left, "It's about being a changeling. I want to learn where I belong. Don't you want to know what your ancestors achieved? Isn't that the point of history lesson?"

"No, history lessons are boring, and I hated them in school. You were the nerd of the two of us, remember. I was more interested your sister's music album than history," said Luna, as if I was supposed to remember every moment of my past.

I could resurface some of my memories about Luna being a big fan of changeling music, and it was triggering my curiosity.

I spoke to Luna, "It didn't seem weird to you, that ponies were using candles, and in the school, there were electric lights? The style of the music you were listening to? Nothing was off about it?"

I couldn't see her, but I would bet she just shook her head, "No, I liked the wibes it produced in my head, and I didn't care about the details. I did wonder about many things beyond that, but not enough to stress over them."

Strange, if I was in her place, I'd be more than curious to get all the details.

Luna spoke up again, determined to not let the topic go, "And that's it? Just being a changeling. That's your motivation?"

"No, there's more to it. First of all, there's too many mysteries," I replied, "For example, my mother, Amora, was well established in Crystal Empire. Then, you got my 7 sisters, in figurative way of speech. Such a force, and they were beaten by just a one pony. Another thing, who called you and Celestia? That conflict took three days. If you arrived earlier, nothing would happen and changelings could live with ponies in peace. "

Luna thought about my claim, "Well, to light up the darkness, we weren't called by changelings, but King Sombra himself. The briefing said, the changelings wanted to sabotage the alliance. My sister, however, decided to wait for two days and then go in for a rescue. I have no idea about the reasons behind that, though."

I let Luna's words settle, so I could form a somewhat smart answer, "It seems Celly expected Sombra to be a traitor. She let my people have it, and then went in for a kill, once the conflict ended and Sombra got and impression he was save."

I decided to not press the topic further, because the marble stairs had just ended.

We were in an another area, very similar to the previous one. Interestingly, it reminded me of the throne room in Canterlot.

***WHO DARES TO DISTURB MY SUBJECTS!**

Thundering voice had struck my mind and I found myself on the ground. Luna seemed to withstand the force of the shout, but was shaken nonetheless.

Throne room it was, indeed. I didn't know who the emperor, or empress, with the powerful voice was. I could see their form, but it was too dark to tell either way.

The changeling in the front of us raised from the stone throne and approached us. Blue and green lights turned itself on, and I could see their face clear.

It was Amora, the mother of mine, and my seven sisters. The highest standing changeling queen of her time, immortal and omniscient.

She stopped death in her tracks when she saw me and Luna on the edge of illuminated area. I smiled nervously, and Luna took a step back, as if she was hoping the darkness would hide her.

"Chry-salis?" said Amora slowly.

Her orange pony eyes, the snowflake tattoo on her forehead, blueish skin, everything matched to memories I had of her.

I just realised, weren't it for Alea's translator, I couldn't understand her. Funny thing, to be honest, what 1000 years long gap could do.

"Princess Luna?" continued Amora, "What are you doing here?"

How do you answer a question like that?

Fortunately, I didn't have to. Alea once again jumped in without a warning, even though she had to have no idea about the situation this time.

"We were looking for you, (...). Our ship had a (...), and we were delayed on our trip here," said Alea through my suit's speakers, some words getting retracted from her speech during translation. She had to be speaking the way Amora was.

Amora shifted her weight from one hoof to another, "Thank the stars you are alive, (...). It'd be unfortunate for you to meet the fate of your three sisters," replied Amora. Once again, the translation wasn't perfect, and I hoped Alea would take a clue and fix it, as the beeping was making my ears hurt. That was, if she could even notice the thing.

Amora proceeded with the greeting, "Well, what brings you here is unimportant at the moment. As the Queen, I am happy for every bit of my kingdom saved. That brings up the question," Amora jumped towards me, "How is our great empire doing back home?"

"There's no great empire anymore, mother. Ponies took over and I am the last queen of our kind." I finally found a strength to say something.

Amora's face grew hard, as her muscles tensed up, "That's unfortunate. Still, it's better than nothing. This world is nowhere near habitable, but we can try. With you two..."

I jumped in to the conversation, interrupting Amora, "Excuse me, but we can't stay here. Our home is in danger and we are asking for your help."

I had a feeling I did something foolish. Amora straighten up, and showed me her back, "Well, I am not going anywhere, nor have anything left to give you. Equus is lost in my eyes, and force needed to retake it would be impossible."

"There's no need to start a war," I had no idea from where those thoughts were coming, "Ponies and Changelings are no longer at conflict. I am talking about bringing one person down kind of scenario." I couldn't find any clues, if Amora was taking me seriously or not.

She was just standing there, her back towards us. She was breathing heavily, grayish skin on her sides going up and down with the motion. Finally, she spoke up, "I was always tolerant about your life choices, and I shall remain that way. Unfortunately, I won't be able to help you in the matter at hand. Still," Amora gave me a side look, and she looked even older than she had to be in that moment.

"I am too old, and I like my peace. This place is beautiful in its nature, you just have to learn how to see its beauty. Maybe, one of your sisters would help you. Go and talk to them instead." Amora finished with a sigh and took a place on her throne again, "You'll find them in Preservation room, down the hall and to your left."

I wouldn't believe it if it didn't happen in front of me. Amora's body had lost its colour and shape, and she literally became a statue. It was like she was part of the facility.

I blinked and had an urge to ask Luna if she saw the same thing as I did. In the end I didn't have to, because Luna exclaimed, "What the heck was that about?" Confirming she was just as confused as I was.

We took advice of Amora with passion. I wasn't eager to meet my siblings more in my life.

"Down the hall and to my left," I repeated words of my mother.

When we were walking the mentioned hall, made out of polished dark marble again, I wondered, where was the work force used to build this place. There had to be a whole swarm of changeling drones to construct such a massive structure, not even considering the amount of digging.

I stepped in the corridor on my left, to run in the closed door. I tried pushing into them, expecting them to be locked, or at least stuck after the years of not moving. What came as a surprise, however, they had opened without a squeak.

Once again, we were in a very archive looking room. There were shelves with Sonium crystals, giving off a dim blue light. On the other side was a number of life support pods, lined up in two rows next to each other, and going further than my eyes could see.

I tried my best to see through the darkness. Room was colder than the rest of the building. It felt like an overgrown freezer on my skin.

I trotted across the shelves. Crystals were making a quiet white noise that made my ear twitch, and I hoped to get through as soon as possible.

I made it to the life pods, just to discover each of them was filled with a goo of some sort. There was a changeling wrapped inside of the sticky substance, giving off no life signs. I kind of realised the structure of the pod had to be blocking my scanner, just like it would block a space radiation. Those pods were similar to those on the board of Little Wrath, so it made sense. I couldn't help myself but wonder, what would happen if the unfortunate subject woke up inside of their life pod. Would they suffocate from the lack of oxygen? Or there was a fail safe system to prevent that? Considering the crew of Little Wrath died when the ship lost power, the first option seemed likely. Horrific death, indeed.

As I was going through the name tags on the pods, I noticed the diversity of names those changelings had.

I didn't give my subjects names. Just for my sake, to not get attached and regret sending them to their death. Queen had to do sacrifices, I knew that well, but Amora? She wasn't the type to use her subjects as a cannon fodder. What great things would happen, if my mother would be more assertive and kicked the worthless 'King' Sombra out of Crystal Empire the day he had moved in. He wasn't exactly subtle about his intentions, and it was clear he would turn into a threat.

"Hey, I think I've found someone." Luna was on the other side of the room. If we didn't have radio, I bet I wouldn't hear her.

I ran over to her. I wondered who did she found first. I wasn't close to any of my sisters, but I had my preferences. One thing about the whole sister problem, I and the other seven queens weren't sisters at all. I mean, we did hatch from the same batch of eggs, but weren't taken for siblings until the day we were given the title. My thoughts returned to Erasten, who died on the orbital station during the explosion. I never saw her as sister of mine. She was more of a friend to me, until I and her went a separate way. The same thing happened with the other queens.

Slowly and surely, the memories were coming back. I could clearly remember their faces, names, what did they like. I had my doubts, given the circumstances, this would be one big happy family reunion. My sisters had their right to be angry with me for letting them down. On the other hoof, I didn't know Sombra was planning anything so early after his arrival. I wanted to grew up, leave the home behind and start on my own. Well, when I look at it now, Amora did send that distress call through Hive mind network, and I decided to ignore it. Whoops,...

Luna found the youngest one of my sisters. She was of Luna's size, slim and athletic built changeling. Her blue mane, penetrating gaze of her cyan irises on black background with serpent pupils, that added to impression she was a powerful queen. The opposite was the truth. Stardust, her name, was the most open minded filly I had an opportunity to know. She was shy, but only because the other queens made fun of her. I was too distant to make a good first impression at the time.

Next to the pod of Stardust', there were another two queen pods. Vertex and Obsidian in that exact order were lined up in their pods.

Vertex, with fire colored mane, ruby around her neck, matching colour of her eyes. She was always the leader. The hot head, that got into trouble for the fun of it. She was willing to go into anything, if there was a chance she could brag about it in the end.

Obsidian, with purple coloured mane and electric blue eyes, wasn't born with wings, so even her opinions matched the 'feet on the ground' style. She liked her peace, spent most of her time alone, and was top of her class.

We had a nice contrast of characters on our hooves. A hot head, nerd, and shy girl. Perfect, it couldn't be better.

"Alea," I reached out for my AI, "Could you like, interface with the life pod? I have no idea what to do to make it open."

"Unfortunately, you are out of range of my systems. I can't access anything beyond the network I am talking through right now," said Alea in reply.

I sent her some image data, so she would have at least some clue of what was going around us. In return, Alea came up with a couple of hints of what each button on near console could do. I tried pressing them in the order that seemed likely. It did something.

The pod I was attempting to open slid up and angled itself upright. Its protective cover split in two parts, that were pushed towards the sides of the glass tube. Goo went out of the tube through its foundation somewhere to lower parts of the facility. Subject inside of the life pod staggered on their rear pair of hooves and fell upwards.

I had a split of second to catch Vertex and prevent her from breaking her neck. Once she had collided with my shoulder, she wheezed and coughed violently, spitting out the rest of the life preserving goo. My sister was cold as death itself, but alive. Her breath was unstable, as she was trying to figure out who was she hugged by, and why was she alive.

Once she had spoken up, I knew she didn't change a bit, "Hooves off me!"

I let her go, unsure if she even knew where she was, or what time it was. I had doubts she could remembered my face, or Luna's.

Last statement was disproved by her next sentence, "Chrysalis! How dare you! You let us die, then show up!"

"Vertex, come on..." I tried, but her horn was already starting to glow. Fortunately, she was too weak to cast anything lethal. Vertex was as surprised as I was.

"What?" she exclaimed, "How did I lose my powers? Work, curse you!" She tried again and again, until her powers gave up completely. She had lost her balance and fell down.

Once Luna figured out Vertex was unconscious, she commented, "Well, that's a great addition to the team."

"You can't choose your family," I replied and went to the next pod, while Luna grabbed Vertex and sat her against the opposite line of pods.

Same process repeated with the other two sisters of mine.

Obsidian had a quicker recovery than Vertex, and unlike her, she did accept the hug.

Her first words were, "Heh, I've thought you've given up on us."

"I haven't completely. It just took a bit longer to get here," I mumbled through her hair.

Stardust was just confused about everything upon waking up. She had no idea where she was, or who I was in the first place. She could remember her name, but all her other memories were gone. I let Luna and Obsidian tend to her, and possibly get to know each other, while I went to find Stardust' memory crystal. Experience from earlier helped a lot, and it took me only five minutes to find it.

"Hey, Stardust. Hold this for a moment," I told her upon my return. Stardust took the crystal in her hooves and kept eyeing me with a blank stare.

"No, I mean with your magic," I tried again.

Stardust looked up, to discover she had a horn, "Magic? Am I an unicorn?"

"For one's sake, Stardust. Focus!" Obsidian was loosing her patience, but was still relatively calm, compared to what Vertex would do.

Stardust focused, her eyes closed. Her horn woke up alive to accept the crystal. It took only a split of second before the magic field faded away. Crystal floated down to the ground as it was loosing its dim blue glow.

Stardust looked up, then exchanged looks with me, then with Obsidian. "Sisters? What am I doing here?" she said.

Obsidian hit her forehead with a hoof. I tried talking, "Do you remember anything about this place, Stardust? About the Elders and the Arks?"

Stardust seemed to be thinking, turning cogs inside of her mind almost visible. She then slowly admitted, "I do remember I came here on a star ship, and then our mother put me inside of this," she pointed at the life pod, "container."

"That crystal had to be incomplete. She doesn't remember half of the important things," commented Obsidian. I turned to her, frown on my face.

"Any better ideas?"

Obsidian shook her head.

"Well, then it's settled. At least she won't attempt to kill me on the spot, like Vertex tried to," I pointed out, ending the whole debate.

I grabbed Vertex and somehow balanced her on my back. Obsidian helped Stardust up.

"What is your plan anyway? Why did you wake us, if you could join us?" asked Obsidian. I was kinda expecting a question like that. Like, I was expecting them to follow me, but I didn't give out any reason why they should do so.

"I want to retake Equus. There's one pony in my way, but she's more powerful than I and Luna, plus she has allies."

Obsidian snorted in amusement, "So, big sister can't take on a pony. How hilarious."

I shot her an annoyed look. She seemed to be in a good mood out of sudden. "Like, I'll follow you and I think Stardust will too. I just need to know the details before I throw myself into the fire. Have fun convincing Vertex, though."

That was more than true. Vertex was open in her hostility towards me, and getting her on our side could prove to be a tough one. Unless, someone with higher power helped...

"We're gonna see our mother. She'll knock some sense into her." I said.

Obsidian blinked once, then twice, and then she burst into laughter. "That pacifist? Aurora can't straighten a fricking guard, I want to see her battling face to face with Vertex."

It didn't seem right for Obsidian to be making fun of our mother. "I wouldn't underestimate her. Kindness is the best weapon when used right." I made a point.

Obsidian laughed even more. That was getting ridiculous. How could she turn 180 degree in her approach?

"Knock it off, will you! We are out of options and I am getting tired of this place!" I yelled at my purple-maned sister. She stopped laughing immediately.

"Don't be such a prude. I know this thing is important to you, but chill a bit, okay. We'll see Aurora. She might be able to help us in the end. Who knows?"

Obsidian didn't say a word after that, and remained silent until we arrived in the throne room. Aurora was where we left her. Turned into a statue, motionless.

I approached Aurora in hope she would sense my presence and wake up.

"Hey, mother," I said, "I went to get my sisters, but I need your help."

*What is it, my child?*

She was still a statue, but her words felt as powerful as always, even if a little bit of exhaustion was in it. Her stone form had to be a way how to conserve energy. She had to be so old, maybe even older than Celestia.

"My sister, Vertex, she feels like violence is the only way. Could you please help her see the light of better future?"

I had no idea where those words came from.

*Bring her closer. I want to take a look.*

Vertex slipped off my back. She remained motionless on the ground, and only raising and falling chest signaled she was still alive.

Aurora shifted her position and transformed back into her living form. She lowered herself to Vertex' level and sniffed my sister.

"Vertex, dear. When have you become so distant? We are all friends here. I am sure you can find your place among us." Words of my mother had a wonderful tone, and they resonated within me and the room around us for a good minute after they were spoken.

Vertex opened her eyes, serpent pupils shrinking as she gasped. "Mother?" she said.

"It's good to have you back, my child. You've always been good. What've changed?" Aurora still held Vertex down, nuzzling the cheek of my sister gently.

Obsidian beside me was dumbfounded, she didn't expect Aurora to overcome Vertex with words. Stardust and Luna were smiling from ear to ear.

"I didn't want to be a bad daughter, mum. I was young and stupid. I am so sorry." Vertex couldn't hold back tears.

I couldn't believe what was going in the front of me. All those years I thought I knew Vertex seemed to be a lie. Aurora broke her in seconds with just a bit of kindness. Vertex was weeping like a little filly with just a mention of how bad she was in the past.

Aurora raised her face towards mine and smiled, "She won't cause any trouble now. I hope you'll find what you are seeking, Chrysalis."

My mother retreated back on her throne and she became a statue again.

Obsidian finally found words, "Well, that went better than expected."

Luna joined in, "It was almost scary, how Aurora broke your sister, Chryss."

Stardust hid her face behind the length of her mane. Only one eye could be seen, peeking out from behind the changeling hair.

I approached Vertex, and prayed to stars above she wouldn't turn bad again. Nothing like that happened though.

"I am sorry, Chrysalis." she said.

I nuzzled her face slightly, in the same manner Aurora did.

"Nah, I was an idiot. I did ignore your call for help. I don't deserve anything, but flames of Tartarus."

Vertex chuckled slightly, "We are even then. I've given you a bad time more times than I can count."

It was like someone flipped a switch, or like Vertex and Stardust switched personalities. I helped my sister up.

Luna was keeping a track of our goals, so it was only natural for her to point out the obvious concern, "So, with that done. What's our next step? Returning to Equestria, showing Twilight what for and all of that..."

Obsidian came up with a solution, "If I could have a word in that, some escort ships had weapons on board. That's one thing," She crossed the distance between me and Luna, "If we are lucky, we will find an old hyperline generator. Elders used it to transport stuff on the orbit and back."

"Well, we shall not waste any minute. Let's go." I said and dashed forward.

"Hey, wait for us!" shouted Luna and Obsidian simultaneously. Stardust and Vertex, still shaken, followed closely.

Obsidian jump in the front of me, "You don't even know, where you are going, dumbass. Hangar is the other way!"

I stopped my trot and Luna crashed into me. I apologized to her and wondered how many times we would end up in such a position. Obsidian face-palmed. Stardust even seemed amused.

"I'll lead the way, if you'll excuse me." said Obsidian in the manner princess would ask for a new towel.

In the end, it didn't feel that weird. Obsidian was a girl with heart in the right place, so I wouldn't expect her to betray us.

Vertex was trying to talk to Luna, but only made my fillyfriend uncomfortable. Luna didn't forget about the encounter, about which Vertex had no idea. Aurora had to erase her memories, perform a hard reset so to speak.

When it came to me, Vertex being that way felt even worse. If she would hate me, I wouldn't have to mentally slap myself every five minutes for being a moron. Letting my family die at the hooves of King Sombra, that wasn't something to be proud of. I wondered if Aurora did that on purpose, making Vertex forget all the bad things, and remember only the pure gold of the family relationship. I was almost certain that would sooner or later drive me insane.

Alright, I am complaining and I shouldn't.

Obsidian touched a faded runic symbol and seemingly seamless wall divided in two. Behind the barrier was a rather large room, quite similar to one where we had found Little Wrath. She turned to us and spoken, "It would be wise to split up. We can cover more ground and get outta here."

Luna asked before I could, "What are we looking for?" She gave me a toothy grin, and I did the same.

"Look for a cylindrical object, with copper coil in the middle and lot of cables. Call over Hive mind if you'll find anything."

At mention of Hive mind, it made me thinking about Alea. She was awfully quiet for a long time. We had to be out of reach, or a storm happened and there was interference.

We split in teams. I went with Luna, Vertex with Stardust, and Obsidian on her own. She chose it to be that way.

In the end, it was Vertex who found the hyperline generator among the piles of trash. By a rough examination, I'd say it had to weight more than few hundred pounds, with its dimensions of 8 by 8 feet of solid metal.

We positioned ourselves.

"On three! One, two, three..." gave out Obsidian her order.

All five of us simultaneously lit up our horns and pulled up. The strain I felt on the magic field was making my neck bend forward, but I was determined to finish the job. We managed to lift and move the generator several feet to the side. It got significantly lighter when it wasn't buried in scrap metal. I and Luna took the job to carry the thing, as we were at the top of our strength.

Obsidian pointed out we wouldn't be able to exit through normal airlock. Instead she led us towards the ancient looking hatch that was taking most of the backside of the hangar. Obsidian did her magic and the hatch opened, revealing rather spacious cylindrical hole, leading somewhere up. I could guess it was the same concept we had seen in the Crystal Empire. On the other side of the hole had to be another airlock, large enough the ship of the size of an Ark could fit in it.

Obsidian turned to me, "Well, it might be a good idea to move your Ark as close as possible. I am not dragging that thing all the way to where you've left it." she said quickly.

"Right, I'll go back and ask Alea if she could move the ship closer," I replied, "Luna, come with me, please."

Luna joined my side without a complaint, and we walked off. I could feel the three pairs of eyes burning through the back of my head. It seemed like my sister's had their doubts if I'd return or not.

When Luna was certain no one could hear her, she sighed heavily, "That's one heavy situation, Chryss. I don't know if we should trust those people."

"What do you mean? They are my sisters." I said, even though I partially shared the opinion of Luna's.

She sighed again, "I mean, don't take it personally, but I believe they are too self driven. Like, they'll help you, because they see an opportunity to escape this hell hole. Who knows what they will do, after we leave, or reach Equestria."

"I think you are paranoid. My sisters aren't Celestia." I wanted to piss off Luna a bit, just to get more thoughts out of her. She didn't let me though.

"I know," she closed her eyes for a bit. She then looked at me with a sad smile on her muzzle, "I just hope this madness will end up somewhat good for us. I don't want this to be the end, you know. We have a lot of good things left to do."

That last sentence made me blush a little. Was Luna suggesting we should get married and potentially live together? Well, we were living together before and it worked, so no problem there. But getting married, that was like off the chart, completely new thing for me. I blinked.

"Let's just focus on getting out of here. If Miss Sparkle wins, there won't be a future to come back to." I said.

We took the stairs up and walked past the 'statue' of my mother. I didn't feel good, once I thought about the truth. We were going to leave Aurora here. She wished to remain, but I'd rather take her home with me, rather than left her alone here. I might reconsider and load her on board anyway if I'd get that opportunity.

I and Luna practically sprinted through the silent halls and reached the final airlock in half the time than before. I tried calling Alea, but she was silent. It seemed like she had went into sleep mode to conserve energy. For us, it meant walking to the ship, waking her up and return back. Piece of cake.

Dark orange and yellow clouds were forming on the horizon. I could feel wind putting force on my body. Particles of sticky orange dust was slowly making me unable to see through the mask of mine. We had to hurry. If the would storm hit us, not even Alea could help us.

I followed the location marker. Alea put it down so we could find her. One truly wise idea. More time we spent outside, more all the rocks and dust seemed the same. I'd then in the wrong direction more times than I could count, weren't it for the navigation data of our AI.

When we finally reached Little Wrath, I noticed the side exposed to the world was covered in orange dust, making it indistinguishable from ordinary landscape formation. In its own way, it could prevent anyone from detecting the ship, but for us, it only made it harder to find it.

We walked around the chassis of the Ark, seeking the way inside. The dust hid every detail on the surface of ship completely. Now, it seemed like the chassis was seamless.

My eyes hurt from the looking. I was just about to try and knock on the surface of the ship, tell by the sound if the chassis was hollow or not. I decided for the idea, because it seemed as the most reasonable one so far. Luna joined me and we were both knocking the hull out.

"Who's there?"

Both I and Luna jumped. I certainly didn't expect Alea to react.

"Alea? Why haven't you responded to my calls?" I asked, rubbing my forehead with a hoof. After a while I realized I couldn't scratch myself, because I had helmet.

She giggled, her voice a bit distorted. "That's not how it goes, silly. You are supposed to say something funny."

"I am serious, Alea!" I was getting annoyed with her. My oxygen levels were getting low, and we were running our mouths, talking about knock knock jokes.

"Oh, I am sorry, captain. Omnipresent metallic dust that settled on the hull is blocking all my sensors and long range communication. I am blind as a bat, so to speak." She replied, her bouncy personality still somehow present. It'd be kinda funny, if it was in a different situation.

"I'll let you in." she finalized her thought. Airlock, just withing my reach opened. It was impossible to tell the difference between the door and general hull. To that level, it was covered in dust. Was it even a dust? It behaved like a weird type of snow to be honest. I had to take samples and examine them under microscope. That wouldn't prove difficult. I had that stuff all over me.

First thing I did was to get rid of the suit. I'd let the automated system take it off me, but before I'd do that, I had to take those soil samples. Luna, who wasn't interested in any analysis agreed on undressing first, and then going to get me a sample holder, a glass test tube.

She was back in a beat of a heart. I scrapped few pieces of the sticky substance of the suit. It became hard as a sandstone. It seemed, more time it was on me, harder it became. I had to get out of the suit, or I might not be able to take it off at all.

I used my magic and took the test tube from Luna. Orange chunks of now hardened material floated into the container and I sealed it with a cap. After that, I walked over to the undressing station.

Automated system woke up immediately after I approached it. It buzzed like it was happy to see me. I back stepped in to the pony shaped hole and the process began.

I could feel the robot arms unscrewing and taking apart pieces of the spacesuit. Hissing of pneumatics was making the thing a but hard on my ears. Quite loud noises it produced, to be honest. It took only two minutes in the end.

I stepped out of the machine. My skin still felt a bit funny after the decontamination. First, I got hit with radiation, to kill anything on the surface of the spacesuit. Then, after the suit got taken off, I received a shower of some sort. I could smell medical grade disinfectant and something else that evoked a burning sensation on my skin. Weird, stuff.

I took the earlier taken sample. With it floating next to me, I went towards the Bridge. I made a stop in my quarters, to drop off the sample. I didn't want to drag it around the ship, when there was no need for it.

Luna was already on the Bridge, explaining our situation. I joined her side, just as she told everything about my three pseudo-sisters and our plan of escape. Alea, staying just feet away from us, tilted her head to the side.

"Well, I can detect a suitable hardware to integrate the mentioned generator into our systems, but are you sure it is safe?" said Alea.

I could detect her fear the hyperline generator could cause some kind of malfunction. I had to agree with her. It was left to rust in that storage for thousand years. On the other hoof, so was Alea and the very ship we were on.

"Well, I guess if this ship remained in working order after a millennium, there's nothing to fear, really." I said.

"It's not the same, captain," Alea shot me a look, that clearly stated how worried she was, "Crystal Empire's hangar was sealed and protected by preservation tech. This place doesn't have any of that! Please, don't make me do something you're going to regret later."

Was she begging me? Well, that was new. I turned to the side, so I was facing both Alea, and Luna, "Well, suggestions? I am out for today."

Luna smirked, "It's simple. Let's just load your sisters and the thing up. Decisions after we leave this cursed place."

I nodded my head, "Seems sensible. Let's do that."

Little Wrath slowly raised from the land. Dust that settled on it fell off. Alea had to use a small wipers, installed on an external cameras, so we could at least see where we were going. Fortunately, the strange yellow matter didn't harden that much. It took only a beat of heart to reach the changeling settlement. One of my sisters turned on a blinking beacon. It was producing sharp white light. It looked like a shooting star, that just landed there.

Alea made a maneuver around the structure. I noticed the defense towers that were shooting at us just a while ago were pointing down, seemingly without power. Obsidian had to power them down. It seemed she couldn't figure out how to rewrite targeting protocols, as the tower was shooting at anything in range.

One tower actually sent a beam of deadly light in the opposite of our direction, when we left my sisters and went to move Little Wrath closer to the settlement. I had no idea at what it could be shooting, but on the other hoof, it had little importance to me. My only concern was it wouldn't shoot at me, or my ship.

Alea set Little Wrath down. Her partially transparent form turned towards me as she spoke, "Shall I open the cargo hold now?

"Do it. I am going to suit up and help my sisters load the goods." I replied. Luna stood up, like she wanted to be a part of the moving as well.

"Luna, dear, stay here for now, please. I want someone on bridge in case Alea needed an assistant. " I said.

Luna grinned at me, and sat back down, "Party pooper." she whispered under her breath.

I left then, took the suit I had on me earlier. It got cleaned nicely, and felt like a new one. Alea opened the cargo hold airlock, and on the other side, sealed every other access point for that part of the ship, with the exception of one. Once I got to cargo hold, I noticed my sisters were already at loading the equipment they had brought. Each and one of them had a environmental protection suits on them, about the same as mine.

"Chrysalis, mind giving us a hoof?" asked Obsidian, waving her leg at me. I joined them without questioning anything.

Together, we moved the several larger containers, and I had to ask, "What's in these?"

"My lab equipment. I've dragged it across the galaxy to study alien worlds, and I hope it will help on the way." replied Obsidian, "Besides, Stardust wouldn't let me off the hook, if I forgot to pack her music collection, so that's in there too."

Vertex joined in as well, "And I had to pack my power armor and weapons. I am not leaving without them."

I smirked, "I am not telling you to leave it behind. My ship can carry ten times the stuff you've brought."

As I was moving containers after another, I noticed something. Among the usual personal items I knew my sisters wouldn't leave behind were several energy spheres, the power holding cells of military constructions.

"Uhm, Obsidian? From where did these came from?" I asked, as I held one of the power cells.

Obsidian looked at me sideways, "Well, I've taken that from the defense grid. This place will hardly get attacked, and your ship could use some extra teeth in case of emergency."

We moved the last container and shifted our attention to the hyperline generator. We took the corners of the device and lifted it with our magic. It wasn't that heavy, but thanks to a cooling liquid inside of it, it could be a bit unstable when moved around.

As we had the generator sound and settled on board, cargo hold airlock slowly sealing up and decontamination in progress, I realized what Obsidian had said earlier.

"Wait, extra teeth? Like weapons?"

"Yeah, want did you think?" stated my sister.

The only thing it left me with was confusion, "Little Wrath doesn't have any weapons on board. Or at least I think so." I said.

"Well, you've thought wrong," said Obsidian, "All the the Arks had been equipped with anti-ship weaponry, in case we'd ran into hostile aliens on the way. Brutal, but given the circumstances..."

"I get it. You were cautious." I said. Sometimes, you had to stop Obsidian in the middle of sentence, or she'd be talking forever. She frowned at me, but remained silent for the rest of our way to bridge.

Luna remained in place I had left her. She was sitting in the middle of command centre, situated under captain's control plarform. Alea was showing her something on strategic console, which was circular holographic projector, showing the things in immediate proximity of the ship. Luna wasn't able to tear her gaze away from the moving pictures, and missed our entrance.

"Well, I have the right to be jealous. My Ark had only half of the things your does." pointed out Vertex.

"Mine had a bridge like this one's, but there were windows instead of monitors." stated Obsidian.

Stardust once again didn't say anything. Not a peep.

I turned to my sisters, "How's possible each Ark is an original? Weren't they built at the same time?"

"Not exactly, each ship had a different purpose before it was refitted as Ark. Mine, for example, was a scientific vessel. That's why it had all the lab and analysis equipment on board." Obsidian and her tendency to lecture me. Interesting stuff, though.

"Well, one more thing then," I was determined to explore the topic through, because Obsidian seemed to know more than I did, "Did all of the Arks have an AI? Alea tried to reach out to someone when we first met her."

Obsidian was quick with a reply again, "Every ship did have a sort of automated system to move the hardware around. First plan was to just get on board and let the system handle everything, but after it had proven impossible, they were turned off."

"Non of the systems were sentient though. Alea is a personal project of Queen Amora," added Vertex, who came up from behind of Obsidian. I didn't even notice she was gone.

"Amora wanted to have someone, who could last centuries and tell the story like it just happened. I believe she had copied the personality of some pony princess, that's why's Alea so emotional sometimes." finished Vertex.

"Hey, talk about someone else, will ya!" frowned Alea at us over the shoulder. She was standing on the other side of the bridge, with her head buried in some documents Obsidian had brought on board.

"Nailed it. Gets her every time." smirked Vertex with satisfaction.

"So, what's the next step?" I asked. When was Vertex talking, I became painfully aware that each minute we spent unmoving, more hardening dust settled on us.

"Let's get out of here. We can discuss integration of the generator and weapons later." said Vertex.

"Agreed, it would put more than necessary strain on reactor anyway. Let's wait until it's in standby." added Obsidian.

"You've heard them, Alea?" I shouted across the room, "Are we ready to leave?"

Alea tore the glance of her reading, "Console is over there. You'll figure it out."

"What?" was my reply. Alea wasn't acting herself, definitely.

"You can pilot the ship in manual. It's just not so elegant and efficient. You know, organic limitations." continued Alea, her grin getting wider. Me, on the other hoof, I started boiling.

"What's gotten into you?" I said through my teeth, standing sharp and bold, like a true Queen should.

Alea teleported, so she was standing at the eye level of mine. "What's gotten into me, you ask?"

Vertex, Obsidian, Stardust and Luna surrounded us, forming a circle. I was glaring into Alea's eyes, frown on my face. Alea was grinning from ear to ear, like she wasn't taking anything seriously.

"What about loading an unknown equipment before asking me? Accepting complete strangers on board? Endangering whole well being of me and my ship? Just to name few,..." said Alea in a dead serious tone matching mine.

"My sisters ain't strangers and the stuff we've brought on board, it's completely fine and essential for us!" I was yelling into her face at that moment. Although, it seemed more angry I was, more satisfied was Alea getting.

Obsidian jumped in to the conversation, "Whoa, slow down, girls. We need to work together, not fight. Chryss, do you have a minute?"

Obsidian dragged me few feet away from grinning Alea and whispered, "Can't you see she wants to make you mad? She's upset you didn't tell her about your plan. Just apologize and we'll be good."

"I am not gonna apologize for something so trivial." I hissed back sharply.

Obsidian closed her eyes, "Well, if you won't, I'd have to take your place. I am not staying on this planet any longer."

"Are you serious?" Our faces were just inches apart, and I had a feeling I wouldn't be able to whisper for much longer.

"Dead serious! Now, go apologise!" Obsidian wasn't taking my bullshit. She was more than willing to strip me of the title of captain and take my place. Probably because Alea wouldn't fight against it in that moment.

Alea shifted from her malicious grin to more concerned one. Although, it lasted only few moments, I knew her previous act was more of a friendly brawl, than a real fight. I was taking it more seriously than she was as it seemed, and so was Obsidian. In the end, I had ended up arguing with my sister, instead of Alea, as was intended.

"Fine," I shot an apologetic look towards my AI friend, "I'll go."

I slowly crossed the distance between Obsidian and Alea. My sister was advancing behind me as well, pushing me forward. Her unbroken glare was burning through my neck. Alea looked upon me, concerned face returning.

"Captain, I didn't want to cause any of this," blurted Alea out, "I just wanted to remind you I had feelings too, and that I was alive."

I couldn't touch her, but if I could, I'd put my hoof around her. She was sincere in what was she saying.

"I guess I've overreacted a bit as well. Let's just pretend it has never happened." I responded, "Satisfied, Obsidian?"

My sister frowned, but nodded anyway. Luna clapped her hooves together, "Alright, with that sorted out," she walked over to me and brushed slightly against my side, "Can we please leave this place behind? It isn't worth having a headache over."

Vertex changed weight from one of hooves to another, "What does have a headache to do with any of this?"

I stepped in, "Nevermind, Alea...?"

"On it, boss. Mind helping me with checking the systems?" said the AI.

"Roger. What about you guys?" I asked my sisters.

Obsidian stepped forward, "I'll take strategic console."

Vertex was next, "Pilot systems, please."

"I'll go check the star charts and help Vertex with navigation then." chipped in Luna.

I turned around to take my place at captain's console, while I realized my last sister was nowhere to be found. I turned back and called out, "Did anyone see Stardust?"

"Nope." "Nah," "I don't think so,"

Three replies from from my two sisters and Luna. Alea stood still for a moment and then announced, "She's back in cargo hold."

"Charge of plan then. Will you three be alright? I need to go dig Stardust out." I asked.

Obsidian peeked over the edge of her console and nodded, "We can manage. Go help Stardust."

I ran from the bridge, down towards the cargo hold. I had the ship's layout memorised, so it wasn't as hard as I'd expect. I found Stardust in the middle of all the things my sisters had brought on board.

"Stardust!" I shouted.

She turned to me, her eyes getting wide. She was hyperventilating.

I slowly approached her, expecting her to run away, but she didn't do anything. She was just sitting there, like a statue.

"Why are you like this?" I said, more calm then a moment ago. I was trying to get rid of the anger in me, so I wouldn't scare my already fragile sister.

She produced some sound, or maybe spoke something. Unfortunately, I didn't get the chance to comprehend.

I got as close as possible, practically touching her head with mine, "Everything is fine. You are safe."

She remained silent. I was slowly getting the handle of my temper as well.

"Look, kid. I don't know what have happened to you, but I am heck sure you are in no danger right now." I tried again. There was no immediate response.

I moved myself out of her personal space and turned my back at her, "Alright, I am now going to leave you alone. Once you are ready, join us at the bridge."

I was just about to walk away, when my translation headset beeped and produced a sentence.

"It wasn't my choice!"

I made a 180 degree jump, "What did you say?"

"It wasn't my choice to be frozen for thousand years!" It was definitely Stardust talking. Her voice was more down pitched than I could remember, but she was talking.

"I was sick and had about a week to live. Amora put me in the life pod, so I could survive." she continued.

I blinked, once then twice, then said, "What happened?"

"Rebellion. And an accident. My helmet got broken during combat," Stardust was now fully facing me. Her eyes had a strange mixture of fear and anger in them, "The sickness, it's not contagious. It happens when you breath in some of the yellow dust around here."

I was slowly getting the idea Stardust was presenting. It looked like she had wanted to say more, but suddenly, her body broke. She started wheezing and coughing violently. That horrible state was returning in waves, letting her to catch her breath for about a second between almost suffocating. Once she had regained some control over her body, she faced me. She was pale, like she was just about to throw in the towel and give up. Stardust managed a smile, before another wave of coughing overpowered her.

I didn't know what to do. That was the first time I had absolutely no idea how to proceed.

The ship's chassis slowly tilted to the side. That could mean only one thing. We were in the air and leaving the hellish planet, and Amora along with it, behind. My mother chose this scenario. I'd be more than happy to accept her on board.

Stardust, twisted in an unnatural way, was trying to catch her breath. Drips of greenish blood were dripping from her mouth.

"I am... done. There's no return," she managed to whisper before her legs gave out. She collapsed and only her raising chest was telling she didn't give up the fight to that moment.

I was standing above her, trying to think of something. Tears were forming in my eyes. I didn't have time to get to know Stardust well. In all honesty though, it was my fault, as it was me who didn't care enough. The chance I had was gone, dead.

Stardust didn't stand up, or even move at all. Once I snapped out my thoughts and went to check her heart beat, I couldn't find any.

Well, damn. 


	19. Chapter 19

"Chrysalis, you are back!" greeted Luna my person immediately upon entering her line of sight. I was too sad to reply and she did sense that. "Where's Stardust?"

"Gone. Her sickness got her," said Vertex, coming up from behind of Luna. My fillyfriend responded with 'What?' as she had no idea of what was Vertex referring to.

"I'd like to know as well," joined Obsidian, "Why didn't you say anything? We could have done something."

"No, you couldn't," snapped Vertex, tears in her eyes, "That sickness, there was no cure. I didn't have the heart to tell you."

"It was caused by the poison on world down below. Stardust told me." I added. I was the first one to recover from shock. Death of someone close wasn't uncommon for me as was for my sisters. I lost two hives in total after all. One had to be hardened after such experience.

My sisters were glaring at one another, clear message of anger and sadness mixed in their faces. Luna jumped between them, "Guys, chill. We are one short, yes, but that doesn't mean we have to start fighting. Stardust wouldn't want you to fight."

Vertex, true to her nature, yelled at Luna, "Shut your mouth, pony. You can't even imagine how we feel!"

Luna replied in her Canterlot voice, "Well, excuse me for trying, your majesty."

Vertex was literally blown away by Luna's voice. She slowly dragged herself back on her hooves, shooting me and Luna a confused look. Obsidian seemed surprised as well. "Well, that was one heck of display of vocal power." summed up Obsidian Luna's screaming. Vertex shook her head, as she had to be deaf. I stood fifteen feet away and my ears were ringing.

Alea broke in our argument, effectively ending it, "Sorry to interrupt, but we are currently just hanging in the void. What's the next step?" She materialised right between me and Obsidian. We both jumped as I exclaimed, "Holly Molly! Don't do that, Alea!"

Our AI just giggled, regaining her good mood, that she had lost for a bit. "Apologies, captain. But I simply couldn't watch you all argue."

It was my turn to shake my head, "Next step, right. Obsidian, what can you tell me about this star system?"

My sister regained herself, jumping back to her professional mode, "There's an unfinished jump gate on the other side of it."

Luna joined, "Unfinished? How's that one gonna help?"

Obsidian rolled her eyes, "Well, it's crew quarters aren't finished, as there was no one to finish it," Obsidian waved at me to come down to the map.

She kept speaking, "Our ancestors weren't as bad as we had thought. They actually picked this system for a reason unknown and were sending drones and workers here for decades."

"Through the gate behind Equestria's moon? Explains the huge alien community in Canterlot. There had to be quite a traffic." I said. That comment seemed to bring a smile to Obsidian's lips as she turned away from me.

"Anyway, I believe we could try to reach that gate. If we are lucky, we can try and extract the coordinates, configure the jump and get out of here."

"What if the gate won't open?" asked Luna, who seemed concerned about the whole idea.

"That would mean taking it slow," replied Vertex, "Taking short hyperlines and fly slow on auxiliary."

I frowned, as that idea didn't sound good, "We are already late, and that would take a long time."

"Four to six years, I think." added Obsidian, "Not that bad. This ship has cryogenic cells and a lot of power. We've got plenty of time."

"Yeah, but who knows what will happen in Equestria before we finally arrive," I snapped as a feeling my sisters weren't taking the matter at hand seriously.

"You haven't let that one go, have you?" said Obsidian in a tone, that almost sounded disappointed, "Look, sis. I don't know what happened between you and ponies, but trust me, changelings are better off without them."

Luna was quick to voice out her annoyance with what my sister just said, and even I wasn't happy.

"Obsidian, this is bigger than you and me. This isn't about rivalry between ponies and changelings. This concerns whole Equestria," and as always when I was about to say something important, I put a hoof on my chest. Luna smirked and shook her head. Obsidian looked slightly annoyed and Vertex didn't start paying attention to that moment.

"Twilight Sparkle, the one behind all of this has power we could only dream off. She's gonna bring down a whole world and everyone will suffer. If we won't do something, there won't be much to go back to."

Obsidian approached me and managed the most concerned expression she could, "Chrysalis, I am sorry to bring it to you, but what could one pony do. She's just a fragment of nothing."

That was it. "Did you say the same for Sombra?" I snapped, raising my voice, "Look what he had caused. Our species is in pieces. We are on a spaceship, dozens of light years away from our home, and our mother is dead. Look around yourself, Obsidian. Does this look like a bright future to you?"

I had to admit, I didn't know what got into me. My last words seemed to work, though. Obsidian stopped and I could feel gears turning inside of her brain.

Vertex couldn't help herself and mocked her purple maned sister, "Well, it seems like Chrysalis has a point there. You did say the same thing about Sombra."

"Shut up, I am thinking," snapped Obsidian at Vertex. She was upset I was right, as she wasn't the one to easily accept her own failures. She gave out a tired sigh.

"It's hard to say it, but you might be right. I did make a mistake with Sombra and a lot of changelings died because of that."

"So," I raised an eyebrow, because the argument started to drag.

"I am with you, on whatever adventure you'll go, I'll support you till the end." finished Obsidian.

Luna and Vertex started clapping their hooves together. Obsidian hissed at them, but that only made their grins wider.

"Alright, alright, settle down. Time for work," I closed the topic, "Alea, set the scanner array and analyse the coordinates Obsidian mentioned. I am going to go and plug in the new devices."

Alea nodded her half transparent head and disappeared. Luna said she would help our AI with analysis, as she had problems to understand technology. In the end, it was just me, and Obsidian on the job. Vertex told us she needed to get familiar with piloting and navigation.

I and Obsidian used a cargo lift to get the generator to the engineering room. Whoever designed my ship had to anticipate something of the size of said device would be moved around, as the door frames were made to fit even bigger objects. Engineering wasn't that big, but with some moving around, we managed to fit the generator in. Obsidian started plugging the cables in and ordered me to weld the device's legs to the ground. Welding with magic wasn't my talent, so at time my sister was finished with networking the generator, I had only one leg done. She didn't say anything though, and joined me. She was much quicker, but let me finish the second leg, even though she had the other six done in that moment.

Next were the weapon systems. Obsidian tossed me half of the power cores Vertex had brought on board. From what I got, Little Wrath had weapons on board, but someone had taken the power capacitors out, effectively disabling any offensive capabilities of the ship. We were to return those, giving my ship her teeth back.

It didn't take that long in the end, and we were back on bridge in no time.

In the meantime, Luna took her place at navigation, as she was only one who could understand stars. Obsidian returned to the second command post and Vertex sat beside pilot console, just ending the configuration and her read through the manual. I came down the stairs and joined Obsidian at her console.

"Is the hyperline generator okay?" I asked.

Obsidian swiped over the statistics as ship's self testing feature went through all the systems. "It's sitting there like it was meant for it, sis. Don't worry, I have taken these babies in and out more times than there's hair in my mane." said Obsidian in slightly amused tone. I checked her mane and didn't find any hair, so let's say it didn't reassure me.

Whole bridge got dark as the conduits sucked all the power from systems to start up the hyperline generator. There was a nudge in the back of my head as the ship moved. It felt like one long step was made. Then all the sensors went back online. We were in a completely different part of the system. World we ran from was behind us and looked like a tip of a needle in that moment. Enormous nebula got smaller as well.

Alea switched to auxiliary engines and we started our journey to the jump gate in the front of us. Space around us remained steady. It felt like we were standing in one place, but low humming of engines was telling otherwise.

"What's our ETA, Alea?" I asked.

Alea was quick to respond, "An hour, maybe two. I can't crank up the engine to maximum, unless you want to overheat the core again. Those added systems are draining the capacitors quite fast, to be honest."

"That should stabilise in time. Set her to steady pace, we are going to take a break." I said.

Both of my sisters got up from their consoles and went to find a place to stay in during our trip. I and Luna remained last on the bridge.

I frowned. Well, it would be a small drop in a lake full of water, compared to time we had wasted so far. I couldn't overstretch my crew however, as they were stressed up more than enough. Pressuring them more could cause an anarchy.

"Well, give me a ring if something happens. I am going to check the cargo hold." I announced, turning to flickering image of Alea. She nodded in response and vanished.

"I'll go as well. Wait for me." joined me Luna, just as I was about to leave. We left the bridge before could Alea appear and make a snarky comment. She was teasing us about being together like there was no tomorrow. I had more important things at hoof. Fortunately, Luna could understand that.

We were going to cargo hold, to do the last favour for Stardust. I and Luna could put her with other dead people on board and get rid of the life support pods by tossing them in space. It came as a surprise to me, when Obsidian suggested this exact process. During designing stage, creators of the Arks included ejectable sections of the ship in case something happened and the crew wanted to evacuate. No one seemed to think about what would happen to those poor pods once they'd be ejected into cosmos. They could withstand the radiation and vacuum, but there was a literal zero chance someone with a space worthy vessel would fly by and pick them up. As if spaceships were a thing those years ago, that's another one.

On the way down, we came across Obsidian, who seemed to be tinkering on the second deck.

"What are you doing?" I asked, as her actions seemed out of place.

"Separation..." she mumbled through closed teeth. Her horn was glowing with a bright blue light. Beam of powerful UV radiation was cutting through a layer of metal. With a snap, one panel fell off. Obsidian wiped her forehead of nonexistent sweat and blew air at her horn. In that moment, it glowed like a freshly burned charcoal. I looked down the ventilation shaft that got exposed after Obsidian's action.

"What do you need that for?" I asked my sister, as I didn't get her intention behind making a hole in me ship.

Obsidian took the cover panel and inspected it from all angles. Her horn lit up bright once again to bend the metal in the opposite direction. She spoke as she did so, "There's a nice spot down in the engineering, but it doesn't feel home. I used to have a tinkering table there, on my ship. But that's gone, so I have to make it a home again."

"You are so sentimental, sis. This home is only temporary. As soon as we reach Equestria, there won't be any coming back." I stated.

Obsidian shot me a look of someone, who didn't take me seriously at all, "Well, I did say I respected your decisions. That doesn't mean I have a faith in this mission. I want to have a place to live in, in case we've failed. Your ship seems suitable, that's it."

I let my sister tend to her devices. Her philosophy was way too complicated to me.

Luna and I had arrived to the cargo hold, to find it in unchanged state. Vertex was present, looking for something, but seemed to be failing to find it.

I and Luna were there to tend to late Stardust. She was there, with her eyes closed. The youngest of my sisters seemed like she wasn't sick at all, and simply took a nap in that exact spot. Sadly, that wasn't the case. I picked her up gently with my magic. She was cold and stiff, her mane freely hanging like some kind of seaweed.

Vertex walked over to us, "Need any help, guys?" She said it in a way Stardust didn't just die. I glared at her and she seemed to realise her mistake.

"Maybe I should have said something. Your AI is smart, there might have been a way." added my sister.

"Too late for that, sis. Do you want to say anything before we space her?" I asked in a harsh tone. Great ones above knew why was I so upset.

Vertex took air in and out, then sighed, "No, I think what was said was enough. Let's hope she'll find a better place."

It was a sad sight. We couldn't bring the pod to cargo hold, so we had to take Stardust to the pods. That meant carrying her remains through half of the ship. It felt weird as it sounded. Especially after some of the stiffness got released. I mentally kicked myself for being dumb and not bringing a box or something. It would be me in the end who'd be scrubbing and sterilising the main deck. Well, one fun afternoon, there we go.

Obsidian had to finish her tinkering. She was waiting for us near the pods. I'd expect her to say her last goodbye to Stardust, but my purple maned sister didn't make a sound. I decided against making her, as Obsidian was way smarter than me. Persuading her wouldn't be easy.

As pneumatic locks separated Stardust from the rest of the world, a watched as her pod got pulled upwards. She was elevated next to the other dead changelings, just another victim of this foolish adventure. That's what would my former self said. In my current state, and after what I had gone through, I wasn't so sure it was me talking at all.

There was no time to mourn the dead though. We had to move on, to finish what we had started. 


	20. Chapter 20

"I've made my decision. We won't turn back."

Again and again, some of my crew were seeking a way out of their participation in retaking our home.

"I respect you as a captain, I've made that clear I hope," said Obsidian, "But I want a solid plan. What will we do after we arrive to Equestria?"

"I can try to talk to my sister, and maybe convince her to see it our way?" tried Luna. She earned frown from me.

"Denied! You are not committing suicide. Not today, not in the near future." I said.

"But, Celestia's my sister!" argued Luna.

"Sister, that had you locked up on word of someone without a proper court. I am sorry, Princess, but our situation isn't pretty enough to make such decisions," joined Obsidian my side.

Luna shot us both an angry look, but remained silent. Vertex came up with a plan next.

"We've got weapons on board. We could take the capital by force," she said.

Obsidian was quick to respond, "Not against that, but we need to earn more than a victory. Killing someone as Celestia could cause chaos."

"We don't have to kill Celestia. We need to take out the source." I pointed out.

"Twilight? You can't be serious. My sister won't like that. She's like a daughter to her." said Luna.

I tapped my chin in a thinking manner, "It's a plan though. I want to at least have her imprisoned. Everything else can come later."

Obsidian raised an eyebrow, "So, what is our role in whatever grand scheme of yours?"

"I guess we could summarise the situation by infiltration," I said, overlooking the mocking grin and tone.

"You are the only one capable of that. Our love reserves are dead." frowned Obsidian further.

"Right," I pointed my hoof at her, as if she had made a good point, "I'll assume identity of someone, depends on what will come to me. I'll see what has been going on for past few days and then return. If I won't return however, take the ship and leave. No foolish search parties, okay?"

"Come on, Chrysalis. You've forbidden me from sacrificing myself and then you want to do the same thing? That's not fair!" stomped Luna the ground with her glass shoe.

"Well, technically I am not gonna do anything dangerous, unless I want to impersonate someone important." I specified my role in the plan.

"And we are going to be hiding like rats. That's truly honourable way to participate in battle." objected Vertex.

"Not all battles were won on battlefield, sis. I've hoped you'd know that after all those years." pinched Obsidian her red maned sister. They started arguing about honour and changeling tactics, so I had to jump in.

"That's enough, you two. No one's going to die, nor get captured. I am not losing any of you again." I hugged them around their shoulders quickly.

"Eww, when did you get so sappy?" snarled Vertex.

"Shut up, V. Enjoy the moment." shut her mouth up Obsidian and I simultaneously. Vertex wiggled out of the hug after five seconds of standing still. I let go of my other sister as well soon after.

"Still, it does not change anything. I am going to infiltrate the castle, give you a signal and we'll sort out the case as soon as possible." I finished the thought.

Obsidian looked in to my eyes. Her blue irises looked tired out of sudden. "Well, it's your life, sister. There are places in Equestria where no one lives. We could start over and live the rest of our days in peace." she said.

I turned my back and looked at her sideways, "Yeah, but do you want to end up like that. Look what you've been through."

I walked over to captain's console, up on the bridge. Fade light from monitors was reflecting in my eyes. "You've run away from Sombra, operated a spaceship long before any other equestrian race, survived a failed colonisation and now, you are going to return home," I turned to all my crew and asked with hopeful voice, "Do you want to throw that away?"

They shook their head and Obsidian said, "Well, when you put it that way. I want to have a shot at happiness."

I smiled and returned to them, "That's what I want to hear. Let's make it real."

Alea sent a beep through the speakers, "Sorry to interrupt your briefing, captain, but we are almost at the gate."

"Right," I nodded. Obsidian was at her console, before I could tell her anything, and so was everyone else.

"So, where's the gate exactly? I could see it a minute ago," I asked, as I eyed the monitors above. Area in the front of us was more or less empty.

"It's been on low orbit around the sole moon dead ahead, if nothing happened to it." answered Obsidian without looking up from her equipment, "It has high exit velocity. That's why it threw your ship of course on your way here."

"And the gate at Equestrian moon? Won't we crash into it if we enter the wrong way?" I voiced my concern. Obsidian didn't do anything, but waved her hoof in general direction. She almost hit my nose in the process, because I walked over to her and was standing just behind her chair.

"That can't happen. Emitters on these gates can push objects only in one way, and that's always towards the open space. We've spent a lot of years on that, don't worry."

Somehow, it didn't give me more confidence, "Well, considering how this whole mission ended up, I wouldn't have much faith." I rubbed my muzzle that got itchy out of sudden.

Obsidian turned to me, frowning. She was probably annoyed with me in that moment, "Did my gate hurt you on the way here? No? Good. Now, go bother someone else. I need to analyse something, before we leave this place forever."

I decided against arguing with my older sister. She had her moments, especially when you were in the way of her research. I circled around Vertex, who seemed focused on the console in the front of her nose. It was showing a mirrored image from the monitors above us. That way, pilot was aware of ship's every move.

I didn't even have to approach her. She started talking on her own, "Your ship's controls are much smoother than mine. I remember, when I wanted to do a turn, I had to really pull on the rudder."

Alea joined in the debate, as if I wasn't there, "That's why I am the one turning the gears, Vertex. That rudder of yours is nothing, but a joystick that tells me where to go."

Vertex frowned at face of Alea's, that appeared on her console, "Well, thanks for voiding my confidence, AI."

"I always give out positive feedback," said Alea before beeping away.

"You two aren't exactly at best terms, aren't you?" I asked. Vertex looked at me sideways.

"No, Alea is just jealous of me having control over ship's thrusters. She's truly possessive changeling, that one." complained Vertex.

I smiled at that, no real idea why, "You can't blame her. She had this vessel all to herself for thousand years. No wonder she doesn't want to let go."

Alea quickly commented on our opinion, "I can hear you, you know. Better watch your manners."

"Let's leave her alone for a moment." I suggested.

Vertex nodded, "Agreed." She returned to keeping the ship at steady course and pace.

Last one to talk to, when I was at it, was Luna. She was looking at the stars at her console. She kept scribbling notes on the parchment she took heaven's knew where.

"Hey," I initiated the talking, "We didn't have much time to talk like that, have we?"

Luna stopped taking note and turned on her chair, "No, we haven't."

I sat next to her. At my height, she was still smaller than me, even though she was sitting on the chair.

"This adventure, when it comes to an end, where will you go?" she asked me, slight concern in her voice.

I smiled at her, tried my best to not look menacing, "Well, I'll probably join Cadence at Crystal Empire. There's a lot of things I don't know about myself and my people. The archive there, it's my best shot."

Luna shifted, suddenly looking younger than she was, "I don't want to lose you, not after these years of looking and being alone."

"Well, there won't be any obstacles. With Twilight defeated, everything will be normal again, like it used to be." I said.

Luna shook her head, "No, sadly it won't. Ponies are way too superstitious to accept you. You've read the nonsense some of them write about changelings. Even my sister believes them."

"About that. Why is your sister so desperate? I have a feeling I've asked you before, but there wasn't a clear picture." I voiced something I was thinking about for a while.

Luna got the expression of someone that had to talk, "Well, you've mentioned it yourself. These rubies on her regalia, they aren't normal gems. Your mother gave them to her as a gift for keeping the peace among our two races. Those gems, they are enchanted, and they make everyone of lesser mind love the wearer. "

"Well, they had the feel of something like that when I had them in the front of me." I agreed. Luna wasn't done though.

"I've figured it out during my time on the Moon. I couldn't let go of thinking about the cause of my imprisonment. My sister wasn't anything special, she was just the bigger one of the two of us. Ponies knew about me, and they respected my person and my work. But, when my sister was in sight, it was like I didn't exist. And, of all things she could do, she used it to her advantage and shamed me in the front of everyone. "

Luna made a pause to take in few quick breaths. It seemed like she didn't have a chance to fully talk about that so far.

"She didn't stop her bragging about Sun being better than the Moon, and that day was time for joy, and night was time to hide before the monsters lurking in the shadows. I've tried my best to stay calm, but deep down I knew she had to learn to share the throne. Well, and you know how that ended."

"Well, not really. Did you attack her, or she had a problem with you?" I asked, hoping for the rest of the story.

"I did, because I had enough. You've probably heard the version with my sister trying to reason with me. Well, truth is, I said some stuff about being the only true princess, and that enraged her over limit. But, before I could reach for the Elements, she managed to grab them and face blast me to the Moon."

"And Nightmare Moon?" I pushed forward.

"She's just my adult form, and the nickname is kind of silly," Luna giggled at that, "It's one of many possible ways I could look, when I reach my golden age. My time on the Moon have halted my maturation process, so it will take at least thousand years."

"Well, I won't be around for that," I pointed out, "As immortal as I am, I still have some limits in life span. Longest living queen was my mother's grandma, and she remained alive for a millennium and half only." Luna looked at me with concern, just as I said that, "I am way over one thousand and hundred. It's always possible the next day might be my last."

Luna jumped down the chair and put her head on my shoulder, "Aww, don't think like that. There's still a lot to be done, and you can't give up now." I hugged her back.

Our tender moment was interrupted by Vertex, "Ladies, sorry to bother, but we are almost at our destination."

It was true. Majestic shadow of the jump gate revealed itself, just as we had entered the sole moon's orbit. I took a place behind Vertex, just to have a better view of everything. The big screen above me was way to wide to stay focused on.

"Attempting connection with gate network..." said Alea in formal tone you wouldn't expect from someone as her. I walked over to Obsidian, who had finished the analysis of her data, and returned to the real world of our mission. Full scan of the jump gate was on the screen, as Obsidian tried to bind our approach vector.

"The gate's not responding." stated Obsidian.

"End of the line for us. The antenna has to be dead. " said Vertex from behind her station.

Big frown appeared on my face, "I refuse to give up now. I'll go there and fix whatever might be broken."

"Power's there, signal as well," analysed Obsidian her scan, "It just denies our requests."

"Other changelings?" came up Luna with an idea.

"Unlikely, but possible." finished my purple maned sister, "Some workers could survive, even though I consider that impossible."

Alea jumped in the debate, "I can't issue landing request. Whatever's there, it blocks communication channels."

"I'll steer her manually. Hang tight." said Vertex.

Piloting the ship of such size wouldn't be an easy thing to do, if you weren't Vertex. My fire-maned sister had more experience with piloting flying objects than any of us combined. Her hooves danced over the console. She gently put the ship in steady pace and steered slowly towards the gate. You wouldn't know there was a pilot behind that wheel, that smooth the ride felt.

The gate's automatic systems ignored us. Vertex drove the vessel on curved line towards the supposed docking area Obsidian had pointed out. We prayed we wouldn't need to use force to get in. The structure seemed to be in bad shape, and prying the dock open could cause it to fall apart.

"Starting final maneuver, expect turbulence." warned us Vertex. Side thrusters lit up and our ship aligned itself in right angle with the docking bay. The steel barrier remained closed though.

"Well, damn. It didn't open." I cursed, "What now?"

"If the area here is ionised enough, I could use magic to cut through the hull. These doors aren't thicker than 1 foot. Piece of cake." said Obsidian.

"Okay, you've designed it, it's your call," I accepted, "Let's go grab our gear." Obsidian stood up upon nodding.

Luna and Vertex remained on board, to watch for any threat that could be hidden. I had my doubts that blockage was caused by automatic system, and the Obsidian's theory about immortal changeling workers was quite realistic option. Changelings could survive for hundreds of years, if given the opportunity. If those worker drones learned how to feed on space radiation, gods help us.

Alea pumped the air out from exit chamber and let us out to open space. Strange numbness hit my brain as I had entered the zero gravity.

"Damn, I feel weird," complained my sister over the radio.

With the help of suit's thrusters, we flew the short distance between our ship and the gate's docking bay.

Galvanised layer was almost peeled away from the hull. It was more than clear this jump gate had to be in this place for a while. We finalised our approach and stuck ourselves on the gate's surface with magnetic boots.

"It will take a while," said Obsidian, her voice getting disturbed by space radiation. "I'll have to take breaks, because the excessive heat would burn my suit."

"Take it slow then. I'll go take a look around." I reassured her.

"Don't go too far and avoid direct sunlight." warned me Obsidian.

I decided against asking, if she was my mother to give out orders like that. Group of dark spots caught my attention and I had to see what they were. Walking with magnetic horse shoes active proved to be difficult. Those dark spots weren't more than fifty steps away, yet it took me good moment to reach them.

Windows, they were blackened windows. I used some of my magic to clear the black colour and peek inside. There was nothing. On the other side of the window was plain darkness. Shining light inside didn't help much, as every single photon seemed to get bounced away by the glass.

Obsidian called me over the radio. I didn't even notice I was gone for half an hour. My sister managed to make a hole big enough for two of us and smooth the edges, so we wouldn't damage our suits.

The docking bay was too small for ship of size of ours. It didn't have more than hundred meters in length. It could house a support shuttle, but nothing more. That was Obsidian's statement. I had no idea about half of the things she described. The sliding door my sister cut through were welded to walls from the inside. Pneumatics and electric engines were fried. They had to burn when we tried to remotely open the airlock, as every device I touched was warm. Air was leaking from damaged pistons, making a stream of ice, as water and oil were freezing on the spot.

"Well, that proves someone's on board and doesn't want anyone to enter." I pointed out.

"Unlikely, but possible. That's what I said," objected Obsidian, probably thinking I was mocking her opinion.

"Right," I proceeded, "Where to next?"

"Control room. We don't have much air, so let's double time it." said Obsidian. I nodded in approval, and we continued our way up in silence. The halls, we were passing through, were quite similar to those I and Luna had walked on the orbital station where we met Erasten. Cobwebs covering the walls seemed more faded, and most of them was torn apart, but it still proved some kind of changeling activity took place, even if it was years ago.

"Hey, sis," I asked, because one certain question kept bugging me, "How long does one worker changeling live? Mine didn't last more than a year."

Obsidian hissed at me, to make obvious I was wasting air, but answered anyway, "We sent them frozen here. They don't last long, but they had numbers capable of covering the whole time of construction."

"Could some survive?" I pressed on.

"I've answered that earlier, haven't I?" snapped my sister at me, "Now, shut up. Those O2 scrubbers won't last forever."

Well, if I put two and two together, she did answer this question with hers, 'Unlikely, but possible'.

We passed around the jump gate's core and went in direction of our destination. Obsidian took a small pause to analyse stability of some circuits on the way. By her words, circuits she had analysed were crucial to the function, and were directly responsible for firing the matter emitters, whatever that meant. Sometimes, I couldn't understand a word she'd say. From what I understood however, majority of gate's mass were induction circuits, amplifiers and long range signal arrays. Obsidian threw in some numbers as well, but in such a way they didn't make a goddamn sense. Conserve air, yes, but when you are explaining something, say it so even I, the biggest dumbass alive, could wrap my head around it.

Anyway, that got a bit wordy.

Structure of the jump gate missed windows, so it was hard to tell, where you were. Obsidian was determined to reach the top, where the supposed control room was. I just followed and was on the look out. I couldn't hear or see anything, and that made me feel even more endangered. When we were in vacuum, I felt relatively calm, because nothing without a suit could survive there. Inner chambers of the jump gate did have some atmosphere. It wasn't enough for someone of my size, but it could be enough for a bunch of pissed off workers. I probably worried too much. These were my people. I shouldn't be afraid of my own kind.

"Chryss, look," said Obsidian. I didn't even notice I had spaced out. "Cocoons, and not a small amount."

I noticed I rather large group of green pods with changeling hatchlings in them. How was that possible? Obsidian walked around them and scanned one of many pods.

"Mine, yours, Amora's and Vertex's DNA signatures. These are the original spawns, but who put them here?" asked my sister herself. I remained silent, because I had detected a movement. One deck above us, thought rusted ceiling, I could see greenish body shape and bug-like eyes, staring at me.

"Hey, you, come out or I'll fry you to crisp!" I yelled over the speakers. It wasn't that loud, but I hoped it was enough pass the message.

Green figure disappeared, and that was worse, than if whoever was it, attacked us.

"What did you see?" asked Obsidian immediately.

"Sparkler," I responded, "No wonder they could survive."

Sparklers are changelings who refuse to follow the process of living under Queen, who feeds them with pure LOVE. Instead, they share this commodity between ourselves, and technically, creating an infinite cycle in the process. One down side to this, such changelings lose power over time, and even if they are unable to die from age, their body stops to regenerate and they simply die of internal bleeding, or similar sickness. But that can take a few hundreds of years. Even though such a way of life would seem suitable, most changelings refuse it, and is viewed as a heresy of the highest level.

"Let's wrap this thing up and go. I don't want to be here anymore," said my sister. I couldn't agree more.

We flew up the stairs. Artificial gravity generator had to be a bit messed up, because my wings didn't work exactly the way I'd want. Still, an impressive piece of equipment, to have such a thing running for thousand years without breaking.

Obsidian unlocked the seal that blocked the access further. She mentioned she hadn't put a lock mechanism there, and that it was new. Sparklers didn't want us to leave, that was for sure. I watched my sister's back when she was running around and pressing all the buttons. I knew those sparkling bugs would try to stop us. Question was, when?

"Initiating power up, should be any minute now!" shouted Obsidian at me. She was standing at the console, hidden behind the monitor. I had my magic up, expecting an attack. Scratching above us periodically returned and faded back to the twists and turns of the structure. I counted the resistance. How many of them could be out there?

"Done," finished Obsidian, and jumped the console, "We are good to... go." She didn't say the rest of her thought, because sparkling figure appeared on the staircase, the only way of the room.

"You are not going anywhere," said a male voice, and tall, green changeling emerged from the hall.

"Thorax, is that you?" asked Obsidian, who, to my horror, dropped her guard and took a step forward. How could she be so calm? It was a fricking Sparkler. These assholes were responsible for countless people's death.

"Chrysalis, drop the war face. It's your brother," said Obsidian, "He volunteered to participate on this mission."

I didn't do as my sister instructed me, and kept keeping my head high, "And he became a Sparkler. Explain yourself, Thorax!"

"How was I supposed to survive here, sister? It was the only way." he said, like it was something normal.

"I don't know, die, like everyone else, when they get old and useless." I said harshly.

Obsidian frowned at me, "Don't be mean, Chrysalis. It's the last thing we should do," She turned back to Thorax, "How many of you are here?"

He lowered his head with antlers, "It's just me, others didn't want to share equally, so I outlasted them," he looked at me, hoping I'd accept him, "And then there's about fifty pods with fresh hatchlings. I had to move them to places with high oxygen, so they wouldn't suffocate when the freezers broke down."

"You did a wonderful job, Thorax. We'll take you home. " said Obsidian, and much to my disappointment, she hugged him. Why did she promised him we would take him a board?

"Eww, I am going back to my ship." I said and was about to leave, "Sister, finish whatever you need to do and join me. And you, Sparkler, do something I won't like, and I'll have you spaced."

"Does that mean I can come with you?" he asked. His voice had such a tone that mocked my very existence, even if what he was saying was completely innocent. I frowned.

"I can't go against my older sister, and we could use an extra pair of hooves. However, it does NOT mean I trust you. You've betrayed me once, that will stick with you for a while."

I mentally thanked Obsidian she didn't press the topic. We were getting short on time, and if we'd want to take the hatchling pods with us, we would need a lot of it.

I and my two followers made it back to jump gate's center, where the hatchlings were. Several problems appeared though. How were we going to get them through vacuum? Thorax could squeeze himself into the space suit, that wasn't a big deal. There were enough suits for a whole battalion of workers. Those pods, we'd have to find a container of some sort.

I had called Vertex and informed her of our discovery. She hissed at the name of Thorax, but promised to try and bring the ship as close as possible to the area, where our makeshift exit was.

I returned to the situation at hand. We had about fifty alive changelings in the spawn pods. "Hey, Thorax, you've mentioned freezers. Cryo units? Where are they?" I asked.

"On the other side of station, near the crew quarters," replied Thorax, "But they broke down a long time ago. There's no way we'll make them work again."

"Are they still space worthy? Can they hold air for five minutes?" I pressed on, slowly getting to what I was interested in.

Thorax scratched his head, "I think they might."

Obsidian woke up, "That should be enough, if we seal them all over, we should have just enough time to move from point A to point B."

"Right, we'll do that then. Sister, lead the way." I said. Thorax looked a bit hurt, that I didn't choose him to be our leader. I didn't trust him to that level. Our relationship needed more time to mature.

Our air reserves were getting short, nearing about an hour of action time. We had to move it, if were to get out alive. I cursed at thought Thorax could breath somewhere where we would suffocate. How was he able to survive in such thin air with so little oxygen? On the way up, I asked my sister, how it was possible there was an atmosphere in that place? She answered the jump gate was fitted with air scrubbers and hydroponic facility, so it could support life for future crew. Thorax added, most of the systems broke down over the years, and the air was getting thinner and thinner. He slowly adapted to low oxygen pressure, but if we didn't come in next year, he'd probably be dead. I didn't add any snarky comment at that, mostly to not anger my sister. We had different opinions about Thorax and that seemed to be enough.

Those freezer units looked like a long egg holders. I presume they were attached to a support vessel, or a drone during their trip here. Thorax, being the only adult changeling with free will around, had to be overseeing the docking procedure and unpacking of the pods. He really grew up to a responsible changeling over those thousand years. Maybe there was more to him than what I presumed.

After a quick test, I had found out three of ten freezer units leaked air. We couldn't use these, and that meant leaving fifteen pods here. Thorax wasn't exactly happy about that, as he had spent a lot of time to keep them alive. There was no other way around, though.

Those freezers weren't heavy. We made three trips to transport all seven of them, loaded their slots with hatchling eggs and sealed with built-in pneumatic locks, that fortunately, still worked. Obsidian welded each two pods together, so we could carry them easier. It would be a heck of a challenge anyway.

Vertex called us some time ago, when we were just about done packing last eggs. She parked the ship as close as she could get without Alea complaining. I transferred that message to my companions and they nodded, they were ready. Thorax disappeared for a moment to get himself a suit. Obsidian had to cut a hole in the helmet for his large antlers. I didn't tell him that, but once we'd get back my ship, we'd probably have to cut those antennas off his head. Obsidian's welding was tough to break, and she had to weld the helmet to Thorax' head to seal it off.

We moved through the exit chamber to the docking bay. One of us had to remain inside to push the freezer units out, through the hole in the hull, and the other one pulled with magic on the other side.

We were once again in zero gravity and strange numbness attacked my head. I held onto my two double freezers to not lose them and slowly moved forward with my back thrusters. Others seemed to be doing the same. Vertex parked our ship just about three hundred meters from the jump gate, and opened the cargo hold, so we wouldn't have to drag the already impractical freezers through half of the ship.

My helmet HUD beeped at me. I had about ten minutes of oxygen left. We needed to hurry up. Fortunately, it didn't take that long to reach the ship. I could only hope the eggs survived the trip. Our effort would be meaningless if they didn't. I didn't say it aloud, but I needed a bigger crew, than just my sisters and Luna.

I refused to take the responsibility of taking Thorax' helmet off. I'd tear his head right off, if I was to try. I went to have the freezer units unsealed for eggs to recover from shock. If I wanted to hatch them in near future, I'd need strong changelings, not some crippled bunch.

I joined Vertex and Luna on the bridge. Obsidian lagged behind, because she had to tend to Thorax. I was a bit curious what was she going to do in the end.

It didn't take long for them arrive. Thorax had one antler cut in half and the other one missing. Still, he didn't look shaken at all. Obsidian looked angry, though.

"It wasn't malfunction as I had thought. Thorax blocked the gate's systems on purpose so we would save him." explained my sister, when I asked her what was the long face for. I shot a quick glance at Thorax, who took a seat at one of the free chairs, facing our way.

"Well, can you blame him. He's just a dumb worker, who somehow has free will," I said, smirking.

"He had to block the whole gate's network, just to get our attention. What if we didn't get it to work again? Or something else happened? We could be dead." threw my sister her hooves up.

"Get it why I was angry with him. He did something similar to me, and I had him exiled for it." I finished the thought, "Let's not focus on that though. Gate's ready. It's time to go home." 


	21. Chapter 21

We decided to have one last meeting and good rest, before we would start our final approach. It wasn't my decision, but the one of my crew's. Especially Obsidian was really for taking it slow. I didn't object against the idea this time. We had that argument once already, and it would be a waste of time.

Alea issued a slow burn around the orbit of the moon we were at. Gate disappeared behind us and we would reach it again in six hours. That was just enough time to wrap everything up and get ready for possible suicide run. I remained in captain's quarters for the whole given time. Luna joined me after four hours I was asleep. She respected my wish to get some shut eye alone. I didn't have much of that for past few days. I couldn't belive this whole crazy journey through space and time took only a week. If we managed to win and survive, we would be on the edge of the new age. Ponies and changelings would be friends again, and space exploration would certainly become a thing.

I talked with Luna for the rest of the remaining time. I voiced all my concerns. I was worried about those that helped us get from Equestria. Luna tried to reassure me Twilight would never hurt her childhood caretaker and own brother. I wasn't so sure about that, given the fact she had no problem with attacking Luna. My fillyfriend couldn't wrap her head around it either. By Luna's words, Twilight and her were quite close friends, and Luna even viewed the purple unicorn as her little sister. Tomorrow would be a quite interesting day, that was for sure.

When the time of six hours flew away, Alea called us back on bridge. I and Luna, already wide awake were there first, while my sisters were to come last. Thorax arrived somewhere in the middle of all of that, and to be honest, if he didn't get my attention by greeting me, I'd totally overlook him.

The jump gate's was where we left it, slowly raising from behind of the moon's horizon. I asked my crew if they wanted another briefing or the one before was enough. Obsidian said she had heard enough, and sat down at her console. Others were similarly tuned, so I skipped any long talks.

"Where should I go?" asked Thorax, as he was unsure where his place at my crew was.

"Go help Luna. She always needs an extra pair of eyes." I dismissed him. He didn't argue, and that was his luck. With only half of his stupidly large antlers, I simply couldn't take him seriously. I kinda wondered if tossing him out of the ship high above Equestria's surface would cause a hole in his body shape. Or I could space his ass and see if sparkling skin would help him survive...

Vertex took the navigation in her hooves. She was holding onto the rudder, like it was the last solid thing in her life. "Starting an approach. Any final words?" she said.

"Send the death my regards," I smirked, "Nothing can stop us, we are Changelings!"

"Gate's open and responding. We are in!" exclaimed Obsidian from behind of her console, holding onto it.

Ship jumped forwards as Vertex turned on the main thrusters. Blue lights appeared on the sides of jump gate's horseshoe like shape. World around us got disturbed as we went through. Shockwave threw me on the ground. I didn't mind the pain, and remained in place. I knew we would make it. It seemed like the reality shrunk to a tiny plane of whole nothing, then it stretched to distorted images and then it went back to normal. Another turbulence went through our vessel as we flew from the subspace tunnel.

We were out in the open. There was no gate, no moon or any planets. I recollected myself from the shock and yelled, "Status report!"

No one responded. Obsidian was on the ground. Vertex had her head on the console. Luna and Thorax were both unconscious and lying on their side. I had to be knocked out as well, because my head was spinning. I just had to wake up first. I went to Luna first, as she was the most important person to me in that moment. I gently nuzzled her cheek. She was breathing and didn't look injured. What a relief.

I turned to Alea, who materialised behind me, "We need to find ourselves. Where have we ended up?" I asked.

Alea walked over to Luna's console. Pictures of stars shifted back and forth, as our AI tried to triangulate the position.

"Given the exit vector your sister's mentioned," said Alea slowly, "We should be somewhere in the Equestrian system. I'll run a quick scan for any signatures and report back." She said the last sentence in an almost motherly way. I was glad for it in that moment. I let Alea tend to getting our position, and proceeded to care for my friends.

One by one, I carried them to meeting room, that was just behind the bridge and had three soft sofas. That way, I could easily walk between the bridge and tend to my crew at the same time.

It took me longer than expected. I just finished settling down Thorax, who was last to be helped obviously, and Alea called she had the map ready.

By Alea's information, we were one short jump across the system. She had pointed out the position of the gas giant that could be seen from Equestria as a bright star. Given the fact Equestria was tidaly locked with its star, Alea could easily calculate our position from the location of the said star and the gas giant she had found. I had to give her some credit, she was one smart cookie.

Full sail for Equestria was it indeed. Soon, we would be home, to retake what was once ours. 


	22. Chapter 22

**POV CHANGE WARNING: 3RD PERSON*

*ONE WEEK EARLIER*

Crystal Empire was once again clear from all the hostility and disharmony. Twilight would rub her hooves together, if it meant end of work for her. She didn't want to be a princess like Celestia suggested, not at all. But after seeing her own future, where she's openly rejected by Celestia for failing to protect harmony in Equestria, she couldn't simply stand by and wait for her fate to come. She had to eliminate all the threats, and restore power of her mentor's regalia. Without actively soothing ponies and adjusting their minds, there would be a rebellion. They couldn't find out their princess was getting old and powerless to stop anything. They could decide her younger sister, or even that darn changeling, were simply better rulers.

When presented with such an idea, Celestia didn't object. Twilight was the only one she could trust after all. She was her faithful student, the only one left after her sister's betrayal. Princess Celestia was so desperate last few months. She knew her regalia was loosing power, and that she would soon be dethroned. Twilight just helped her find an another way.

Twilight wondered if she didn't make a mistake with letting Luna and the changeling escape. She could easily stop them, even with the worthless vessel of theirs. Twilight hoped they wouldn't return, explode their ship half way to the Moon and die. Harmony had to prevail.

"Miss Sparkle," voice of a guard disturbed the purple unicorn from her thoughts, "We have found those who helped the prisoners escape."

Twilight smirked at the sight of chained up Cadence and her brother.

"Why am I not surprised?" said Twilight, "Mi Amore Cadenza, was it? You've told me you've helped Chrysalis during the attack on Canterlot. And Shining Armour, you've probably liked what that shifter has done to you."

Pure horror on Shining Armour's face only proved how much in shock he was. He didn't know his own sister was capable of something like that. However, Cadence had something to say, "It's you who's acting off. Why are you doing this?"

Twilight smirked again, "To protect harmony of course. How ironic, I think I've asked you the same thing during the wedding incident."

"That wasn't me, but Chrysalis. I didn't know she would turn bad, and certainly didn't expect she would try and redeem herself," yelled Cadence in Twilight's face, "I have given her the another chance, because deep down I could understand her reasons. She's almost as desperate as Aunt Celestia."

Magic flurry appeared, as a narrow laser blade cut through Cadence's cheek. Drops of blood fell on the ground and soaked into the white carpet. Pink princess winced in pain. Shining Armour shook violently, trying to escape his chains and attack the offender, who dared to hurt his wife.

Twilight eyed his movement in an unamused way. "You really are just a dumb soldier, Shining. No offence, but I can't believe someone as smart as Cadence put up with you." she said. Shining Armour looked at his sister with plead in his eyes. Twilight turned her back at him and told the guard, "Throw them from the highest tower. I don't trust the local prison."

Guard saluted as if he was just tasked to bring coffee, not to murder someone. He dragged the chained up ponies away. Screaming of Cadence echoed in Twilight's ears for quite a while afterwards. Twilight sat down, picking up her book, to just be disturbed again.

"Ma'am, legion's reporting." saluted a pegasus in Wonderbolt outfit.

Twilight rolled her eyes, "You don't have to do that, Rainbow, even if I am your commander right now."

Rainbow Dash lowered her head, "Sorry, Twilight, I was just so happy to be finally accepted in Wonderbolts."

"On my word, after you openly assaulted Spitfire for not wanting to join the Solar Empire forces." frowned Twilight. Really, that girl wasn't making her job much easier.

"You can't blame them," said Rainbow, "They are just stunt flyers. But saying those things about you and Princess Celestia. There was no way I could just stand by."

Twilight figured out the rest. The spell of Solar Princess' regalia had to be really burning out. It seemed keeping few stupid peasants was too much for it.

"What did you want, Rainbow? I have some business to attend to." tried Twilight to keep the conversation on topic. Rainbow was way too curious and the revelation time wasn't nowhere near.

"Oh, right. I've got a report from the inspection. Solar Guards will be there to help you, Wonderbolts as well. Crystal Empire is a bit torn up, because they don't want another war. And former Dream Legion won't join us at all. Their leader have told me they answer to Princess Luna only."

Twilight snapped her quill in half, "Fricking bat ponies! I knew they would be trouble. Get me their commander! Now!"

Rainbow Dash didn't see her friend lose it that bad in months, she quickly responded with, "Aye!" and disappeared.

Bat ponies, dragons, gryphons and changelings were all immune to the effects of brainwashing spell of Celestia's regalia. Someone had to take care of them, before they would cause a havoc. Twilight could look into the terraforming spells those dumb Chrysalis' ancestors left behind. Some of them seemed quite interesting, and would be quite useful in future repressions against rebels.

Rainbow was soon back with an annoyed Dream Legion commander. Rather buffed and well built female bat pony looked down at Twilight with mixture of hate and antipathy.

"During Princess Luna's absence, I am your commander. What makes it so hard to understand?" started Twilight in a strict tone.

"You are not our commander!" responded the female in an arrogant way, "We are Dream Legion and we refuse to commit your crimes!"

Twilight bit her lip, "Well then. You are exiled from Equestria. Pack your things and go!"

Bat pony gave her an another hateful look, "You are not allowed to give orders. I respect your precious princess, but you are just a peasant! You are nothing!"

"GET OUT!" screamed Twilight and explosion followed. Bat pony burned to crisp and Rainbow rolled furiously back and forth to extinguish her burning suit. Once she was done, she gave Twilight a quick look. She didn't recognise the unicorn that came to Ponyville. That Twilight that stood in the front of her was someone else. Rainbow's loyalty didn't let her fight against Twilight though.

"I am gonna go now," said the blue one and limped away, very much aware of burning gaze of Twilight's in the back of her neck. Rainbow had to do something. She couldn't attack her friend, but she could manage more of her friends wouldn't get hurt for their different opinion. 


	23. Chapter 23

*POV CHANGE WARNING : CHRYSALIS *  
*PRESENT TIME*

My crew members slowly came to themselves after few hours. I tended to the navigation and helping Alea in the meantime with controlling the ship. We managed to cover half of the distance between the exit vector of the jump gate and Equestria. I could feel the homesickness going slowly away. I knew our home would be taken back, but I was willing and determined to do what was right.

Shadow of the blue planet in the front of us faded in from the dark abyss of space void. It seemed like the planet wasn't moving and simply waiting for us to catch up with it.

"Hell of a trip, wasn't it?" said Luna with a light smile on her lips. All six of us were at full alert.

Obsidian stretched her already long neck, "Here I come Equestria,"

I gave her a smirk, "You haven't seen that planet in a long time, haven't you?"

"Obviously," she replied, "I don't know what to expect. What great inventions ponies achieved during my absence?"

I had to laugh, "Great inventions? They didn't change a bit. They are still one big party of sun worshipers and they fear everything new."

"At least that's familiar, huh sister." giggled Vertex in her pirate accent. With her rough voice, she really did sound like an old mariner sometimes.

The Moon was where we had left it. It's thick atmosphere full of dark spots still swirled in the most strange way. Equestria was within our grasp.

"Let's take it slow. We don't want to raise any alarm." said Obsidian from behind her console. "Right," I agreed, "Approach from the dark side of orbit. Be careful to not cause shadow."  
Vertex shifted in her seat, stretched her limbs and put both hooves on the rudder, "Aye, captain. Vector set, coming in hot."

We flew in Equestria's atmosphere at low angle due to our speed. We had to slow down to sub-sound velocity before we could start our descent. Vertex had her grip on the rudder, holding it down, so we wouldn't bounce back. Our green energy barriers defended us from the hellish flame and pressure cause by an atmospheric friction. We slowed down and Vertex sent the ship to slow descent. Eternally frozen plains of dark Equestria were just below us.

"Watch for weather changes, this place is notorious for its high speed winds." warned Obsidian our pilot.  
Vertex saluted with a free hoof, "Roger that, sister."

"How's possible this planet is even livable? Shouldn't there be like huge storms and such?" asked Luna, who seemed quite interested in our surroundings. Obsidian was quick to respond. "Well, on borders of the twilight zone, someone put down quite tall pylons of some sort. They keep the winds from getting the strength and protect the land from ashes that are carried by it. No one knows who did it, but my sources suggest someone in the distant past wanted to make a colony here, but failed. Equestria is full of particle radiation, which allows us to use magic. I guess those aliens weren't immune."

"Legends suggest that the way we talk and write was invented by those aliens, that we should be grateful for their existence," I added, "Those images of them are quite funny. Would you believe they supposedly looked like a big hairless apes?"

Our ship had blasted thought the dark zone and we entered the lands of Equestria. It would take only a while, and we would have to start thinking about our next step. Vertex let Alea take the ship's control and joined us upstairs on my platform.

"So," I started, "Each one of you have something you've lost. Your title, sibling, mother, something of value. It doesn't matter what it was as long as it makes you go. We are changelings, we won't give up!"

My crew cheered, signaling they were ready for whatever we would do. We all went to armoury to grab some basic protection. Our suits were more suited for work in hazardous environment, but thanks to their strong structure, and energy barriers, they could be used as light combat armour. We returned to bridge afterwards.

In the meantime, Alea settled the ship down in the open terrain between two hills. We wouldn't be spotted that way. I was determined to fly on wings the whole way to Canterlot, then take a train to Crystal Empire. I had to locate Twilight and signal my crew about my success.

Both sisters of mine, Thorax and Luna gave me a hug on departure. They would sit tight and give me reports of unusual activities in the region over the radio. I had to do the same, so both sides knew everything.

Cold air of Equestria was something I had cravings for the whole week I was gone. Fresh air, that was one absolute dream in space on a board of starship. Up there, you had the carbon dioxide scrubbed gas mixture, on which you could survive, but your head hurt like there was no tomorrow. I had to look into the hydroponic systems. Obsidian could probably produce something that would make our life in space easier. I had no doubts our ship would see way more than the one recent trip.

I was at my full strength. My wings fluttered fast as I flew towards the horizon and seemingly abandoned buildings. Obsidian pinged the close terrain with ship's radar in case there was something dangerous, like a sleeping dragon.

It was a pony village, of size of Ponyville probably. We were too west for it to be Ponyville, guessing from the position of Canterlot Mountain, that was conveniently placed in the middle of the continent.

That village was empty and burned down. Someone had to set it on fire about a day ago, because several houses were still producing smoke. I had a disguise of some common unicorn mare on me. If someone was still there, they wouldn't know I was a changeling. The situation had to be quite bad. Burning of the heretics became a thing usually after, or during a civil war. I decided against exploring too far into the burned remains. I had no idea what I could trigger, or if there wasn't anything hostile.

My cautious approach didn't prevent me from running into someone though. Just behind the burned down village, there was a small garrison. Before I could hide, or make a shifty move, the guard spotted me.

"Intruder! Show yourself!" he shouted in deep voice. I put on the mask of confused girl, who just happened to wander in a fort full of soldiers. If he was going to go for that, it would be a miracle.

He slid down the ladder, and pointed his spear at me. "Now, lady, you'll tell me what in the name of Luna are you doing here?"

In the name of Luna? Wait a second,...

"Are you part of Lunar forces? I've come here to find you." I said, not really expecting him to believe me.

Another guard, in light purple armour with Nightmare Moon's eye and Lunar Republic emblem on it, came from the inside of fortress. It was a bat pony girl with brown skin. She had to be one of the Dream Legion's elites.

"Likely story, solar dog. On your knees, now!" she shouted in a commanding manner. I had to do with a truly high ranked officer. She called another one, a priest probably, guessing from the difference in clothing. He wore silver cape and green gemstone on his neckwear that acted like a clamp to hold the cape in place.

It took me a while to realize the priest had a piece of raw Sonium in his grasp. As he placed the mineral near me, my magic field got disturbed and the illusion was broken. Sparks flew as my magic short circuited and I lost balance. I sat there, in the front of three confused ponies, in my true form.

"Queen Chrysalis?" they said in unison and bowed.

"Now you're gonna bow, you assholes? After you cause a fricking migraine?" I cursed loudly and rubbed my forehead, which hurt like there was no tomorrow.

Bat pony raised and apologized, "We had no idea it was you. Our sources were telling you and Princess Luna died on the run. That those damned solar dogs got you."

I smirked at that, headache slowly going away, "How exactly? My ship has a strength of millions. Some stupid spears and wings can't hurt her."

Bat pony stood there, her eyes wide. The grey guard, that saw me first, leaned towards her and whispered, "Told ye those news were far from truth." Bat pony frowned at him.

I decided to interrupt them, "So, what's new? I need to know everything, so I can report back to my crew."

Bat pony, who seemed to be the leader, gave one more smirk to the grey guard, and tended to me, "After Twilight Sparkle executed our leading commander, Dream Legion was forced to move out. We were fighting off squads of Solar soldiers for three days, and defending those that refused to join Sparkle. We managed to gather some force on the way, but many towns burned in the process. "

Dire looking situation to be honest. Still, a few against such a force, that only proved Luna had her Legion well trained.

"And what about Canterlot? Is Twilight still there?" I asked, getting to the core of my interest.

"Exact location of hers is not known, but our spies suggest she remains in the Canterlot castle and oversees the operation." added the Bat pony.

I nodded, "Alright, do you have any exact orders to remain in this location?"

Bat pony shook her head, "No, we were supposed to guard the settlement nearby, but it became a ghost town long before our arrival."

"In that case, join my crew. We could use someone of your skills." I got to the point finally. If gathering allies was the thing I was supposed to do, then so be it.

"Gladly, my battle brothers and sisters would be more than happy to join," finalised the brown girl her thought and went to gather rest of her team. In the end, it was just fifteen warriors. From what I heard though, Dream Legion were elites capable of taking out whole armies in ratio of 1 to 10.

They followed me without a word. Their loyalty to Luna had to be quite high, if just a feeling I might know of her whereabouts was enough to motivated them. All of them were either pegasi or bat ponies, so reaching Little Wrath was a matter of few minutes.

I called Vertex and Obsidian and informed them I was to bring few others with me. As expected, they were both sceptical about my decision, there was Luna to reassure them. I had my speakers on, so even those following me could have a word in the conversation. I completely forgot I was using a translation device, and that my sisters didn't use modern language.

Bat pony commander, standing few feet from me, was first to object, "I can't understand a word you say. What language are you using?"

I finished my sentence with Vertex and told the Bat pony, on board of my ship were ancient changelings, that didn't learn how to use our way of speaking. I explained I had a device that allowed me to understand them, and that in time, all of Dream Legion members would have it too, and they just had to hold on. Bat pony accepted my claim and didn't object further.

Airlock opened, and as agreed on, Luna came down to greet the newcomers. All the suspicion was cleared on both sides. Dream Legion bowed in unison and I hugged Luna gently.

"It's good to see someone have survived." said Luna, "Guards, follow me. Glorious quest awaits and I need to have you ready."

I finished my report, and departed in my original heading. I knew I would find Twilight in Canterlot. 


	24. Chapter 24

I flew over the distance between my ship and Canterlot mountain. I was changing my disguise, depending on what I was doing. You don't see flying unicorns everyday. I also hoped the gray mailmare I had impersonated wouldn't be around at the time of my arrival. I didn't want to screw this mission up. This time though, even if I was found, I had a radio and a ship with weapons, capable of executing a genocide. I had nothing to fear honestly.

Canterlot changed to the point I wouldn't recognise it. Purple bubble shield was around it, just like during my infiltration. Well, I did cross this barrier once, and it wasn't something that hard. Canterlot had quite large cave systems under it. If you knew where you were going, you couldn't get lost. Infiltration of the capital proved to be rather simple in the end.

I ran a quick scan on the shield. It had Twilight's signature all over it, and it wasn't as strong as Shining Armour's. One or two plasma shells from my ship's main battery would break it apart, that was for sure. We didn't have to waste power and scare my future subjects though, I could get rid of Twilight on my own.

Canterlot was empty. All the residents had to move out during the first days of repression against rebels. So, it was only me, and Twilight's closest supporters. I wondered how many foolish souls were to follow that witch. All the way up the castle gardens, there was no activity. I hoped Twilight would come down and face me directly. It would make my life easier.

Before I would initiate the process of looking in every damn abandoned house, I decided to go and have a look at the castle's inner chambers. If Twilight wasn't around, Celestia had to be. Maybe it would be worth a try to confront my former nemesis first, as she could still put an end to this madness.

I found the castle in a state of decay. Every door and window was open, main gate ripped in half. One serious battle took place here. I entered the throne room to find no one else, but Celestia. She was lying on the ground, unmoving.

At first glance, I had a feeling she was dead. I put my ear at her chest, to realise she was alive, but had to be in shock. I called her name and nudged her muzzle with mine. In that moment, I had a feeling she wasn't any threat.

She woke up, her eyes going from one side to another. She focused on me after a couple of seconds and asked me what I was doing there. She sounded exhausted.

I helped her up, not answering anything. She did figure out something though.

"You are not a pony, are you? You are changeling," said Celestia suddenly, "I can feel your oscillating magic. I don't care who you are, but if you're here to kill me, do it quickly."

I chuckled at that, Celestia truly had to go through literal hell, "I am not here to kill you," I said, sitting back and changing to my original self, "We have our differences, but in the end, we are the same."

Celestia leaned into me, her weight giving me trouble to stay balanced. "I am so sorry. I didn't know what my student was capable of." I had a strong urge to hug her. Celestia, once mighty, was broken and weeping into my mane.

My headset beeped and Vertex' voice sounded through the speaker, "Sister, we are detecting a signature on an intercept course towards you."

I pressed the side of headset and acknowledged the warning, "Copy, sister. Stay focused."

"There's more of you?" asked Celestia, "I've thought you are the last one."

"So did I, Princess," I replied quickly, "Come on, I need to get you out of here. Stand up. You can tell me what happened on the way."

Celestia stood up, her much larger body tilted towards mine. Her voice was of an intensity of a whisper, but I could hear her clearly anyway.

"I started with you two. Twilight told me, my sister sold her loyalty to you, and that she was planning another lunar revolution. Twilight presented me with a proof, a memory crystal that had you and Luna swearing to bring me down and take over Equestria." said Celestia. With each step, she regained some of her original confidence. Twilight could write and read memory crystals. I wouldn't even be surprised if she cursed herself.

"I had you and my own sister in chains before I could realise Twilight fooled me. But, it was too late. Same day, Twilight took my regalia, saying she would give the gems their power back. She have never returned it. I also heard she had executed one of Luna's commanders, Princess Cadence and her own brother. I remained in my quarters, fearing of what could come. Without my regalia, I was nothing. " added Celestia.

We walked out in the open. It was one heck of a beautiful day again, just like when I and Luna had escaped Equestria. Something was in the air, though. My close proximity radar, mounted in my power suit, was picking up strange signatures all over the place.

I had Celestia sit down by the wall. Even the short walk seemed like too much for her. I came back to the open space, what used to be courtyard. I had enough of fooling around.

"Come out of the shadow, trickster. I want to face you directly." I shouted, and immediately regretted that decision.

Twilight Sparkle herself appeared, dark aurora filling the role of her eyebrows. She really corrupted herself, as she looked more like Sombra than anyone else. Her voice sounded icy cold, and out of place, "Have you called me, your majesty?"

My gut jumped when I saw her. I furiously pressed on headset to notify my sisters. Vertex accepted my message and whispered she was on the way.

I hissed at the unicorn with all the pure hate I had for her. Twilight seemed happy though. We were circling each other, both of us magic ready. The battle was about to happen.

Beam of blazing inferno missed me by mere luck. I was quick to respond with my own laser beam, which missed as well. I did a quick roll to the side, as Twilight kept sending fire in my way.

"Prepare for death from above!" yelled someone in my ear. Screaming of jet engines above me was a clear message. Get out of the way!

Barking of double cannons at the front of Little Wrath arrived to my ears. All around me was burning green fire. Screaming of Twilight Sparkle could be heard. I was at Celestia in a heart beat, protecting her with a shield spell. Suddenly it was quiet.

"I haven't hit you, have I?" I heard my sister's voice over the radio, "If I did then I am sorry."

Smoke cleared and I went to examine the battlefield. Original shape of the courtyard vanished. Marble tiles were laying everywhere, along with larger bricks from fallen castle wall. In the middle of that was twitching an object, sparks of dark magic swirling around it.

I knew Twilight wouldn't dare to confront me directly. She was much of a scaredy cat to do such a thing. And I, the biggest fool around, used my full power. In the middle of the marble rubble wasn't Twilight, but some unfortunate pony, that was controlled by her.

"Good effect on target," I called my sister over the radio, "We are not done yet." I could hear Obsidian arguing about something on the other side of wire, while Vertex spoke, "It wasn't the one? Well damn, I was pretty sure she was purple."

"It was a mimic, true villain remains under cover." I announced, "There's a suitable landing zone at my location. I've got one wounded princess with me."

Vertex sent me her quick, 'Aye' and steered the ship towards me. It took a while to identify a spot without obstacles, where she could lower her altitude, so I could help Celestia inside of my ship.

My next step was Crystal Empire. I knew for sure Twilight would be hiding there, as it was strategically suitable. Low temperatures and all-the-year blizzards were enough to keep her safe. At least, those were the reasons why my ancestors chose that place.

For the next part of the mission, I, Luna and my sisters would leave the ship behind and go on foot. Dream Legion soldiers, we picked up on the way, left on our quick visit to Canterlot. Their commander said they would secure the city and protect it against any intruders.

Twilight Sparkle was well aware we had tactical advantage. Changeling technology and magic were superior if used correctly, and my sisters weren't novices in the art of war. I had a feeling that would make my nemesis even more dangerous.

Our squad would deploy on the edge of Crystal Empire. That way, we wouldn't cause any disturbance. Against the simulated blue skies under the protection shield, ship like ours could be seen miles prior reaching effective range. Twilight knew we were coming. She had to know, as we weren't exactly subtle when we had broken in Canterlot castle. Not even considering there was a literal agent of hers, that had to warn the owner before death.

We set Little Wrath down in the area, where the ever lasting winds weren't as strong as everywhere else. Once I and my followers were suited and out in the open, Alea lifted off. She would be on radio, hiding high above clouds.

Frost covered most of my suit in minutes. It was getting hard to flap my wings as well. Strong wind was blowing me of course. Fortunately, our destination wasn't that far. Once I had sun shining down on me, I had to wait few minutes to defrost, because my legs were stiff, as they remained still during flight. The only one who seemed unaffected was Luna.

"Damn snow, I hate it," cursed Vertex, when she peeled away last piece of ice, that settled on her, "I'll rather freeze in space, than live here."

Around us was just plain grassland, and more on North, the Palace. No signs of guards, or an army. Either Twilight didn't expect us, or she wasn't there at all. But, where she could be? She wasn't in Canterlot, neither in Ponyville. I did a long range scan from ship, on the way to Crystal Empire. Ponyville was as abandoned as Canterlot. Where was everyone? Twilight couldn't cause an apocalypse, right?

"Alea to ground team, come in." Alea was checking on us. She had to be blind above those thick clouds. Her sensors couldn't pass through such an obstacle.

"Ground team checking in. How's it going up there?" responded Obsidian in mere moments.

"I am just above the barrier," said Alea, "And I am detecting a superstructure nearby. By starship standards, it's an Ark type vessel."

"That's impossible," I objected, "Only seven Arks were built, and all of them were used."

"Well, technically, there were eight, and dozen of support vessels, that carried out tasks of moving cargo and materials between sectors during expansion era," corrected me Obsidian, "The eighth one was supposed to be for the Emperor, Queen Amora."

"Does it change anything though? So what, Twilight has an Ark, great. She can't pilot it, nor use it against us." I added further. I then pressed my headset and sent thanks to Alea for giving us the information.

We took position near the castle. It was more than true, there was an Ark. The ship seemed smaller, compared to Little Wrath. She was sitting in plain sight on one of the many marble squares.

"I'll have to admit I've been wrong," I whispered to Vertex, who's lying on grass next to me, "There's no way they would move a ship like that without it flying."

"It opens some possibilities," came up my fire maned sister with an idea, "We could force Twilight to go on board, and then shoot her down with our weapons, once she reaches orbit."

For some reason, that wasn't the death I'd desire for Twilight, as it was rather quick. I'd like to see her suffer the same fate I did, when I was forced to leave.

We crawled forward and entered the heart of empire without any trouble. Well, almost. Guards upon seeing us didn't do anything, one even said they had orders to let us through. That wasn't weird, it just meant Twilight knew, and she was present. She was in the throne room and she looked different. I, Luna, my sisters, we all stood few hoof lengths from her. The gathering reminded me of some awkward school reunion after 50 years.

Twilight was first to speak up, her voice, ice cold, and calm, "So, you are finally here. Impressed by what I have achieved?"

"I actually don't see a difference. Planet's in the same desolate way, just when I left." smirked Obsidian. To my surprise, Twilight could understand her.

Purple unicorn came down from her trone and examined each and one of us. Sour taste settled in my mouth as she spoke. Field of corrupted magic was all around her.

"Purple mane, attitude of someone who knows enough, you must be Obsidian." said Twilight, completely calm, and unconcerned, like she wasn't even there. My sister's eyes widen, as she didn't expect Twilight to know her. Twilight wasn't done yet, "And that fire mane, ruby eyes, battle scars, you are Vertex."

"Drop the act, pony!" hissed Vertex at Twilight. Purple unicorn's half closed eyes didn't move, nor she acknowledged someone had spoken. That angered my sister even more.

Twilight came to me, looking me straight in the eyes, "And I believe we know each other, Chrysalis. You are the one, who caused all of this. If it weren't for you, non of the innocent people had to die."

She was completely insane, that's what happened.

"How much blood is on your hooves, Twilight?" I asked, dead calm matching the unicorn's tone almost perfectly.

Twilight Sparkle returned to her throne. Originally white, crystal clear seat was now black as night. Even unicorn's presence caused the world shift, "Not many, just those heretics from Lunar Republic, independent changelings that refused to leave Ponyville..."

"You've burned down Ponyville, because there were three changelings?" yelled Luna, angered to highest level. She would attack Twilight, if it weren't for Obsidian, who grabbed her last second.

I stepped forward, "As a Queen, it is my duty to protect my subjects. You've dethroned Celestia, so Equestria is my responsibility now."

Twilight chuckled and formed a malicious grimace, something between a smirk and angered frown, "I've heard that somewhere, haven't I? Oh, right. Just before you were about to DIE!"

Beam spells were casted, as mine and Twilight's magic clashed together. I charged the beam with all my might, but instead of trying to push and explode Twilight's horn, I had the junction of two spells explode. Whole castle shook in its roots, as the ceiling collapsed. Obsidian threw an energy grid above our squad, so the falling marble got crushed to sand. Twilight somehow teleported away, reappearing on the pile of rubble.

Golden light shone down upon us, as majestic figure flew in through broken ceiling. "Twilight Sparkle!" said a strong voice of Princess Celestia, who floated just above us.

Dark magic touched the Solar princess and she screamed. Burned skin and hole in her wing were smoking. Fallen white angel was grabbed mid air by my magic field and lowered to the ground.

Twilight stood there, panting, but grinning happily, "Well, if Celestia can't defeat me, no one can!" And evil laugh followed.

What was with evil people and laughing.

I let Luna tend to her sister, while I and my sisters approached the mad unicorn. We threw our attacks at her simultaneously. Puff if smoke and dust flew upwards, filling the room with white fog. Once the cloud settled, we realized Twilight was gone.

"She had to run away, scan the area!" I yelled my order, as I had enough of my nemesis getting off hook. She caused enough pain already.

I saw her purple flank disappear in the exit from desolated throne room. Before my sisters could follow me, I dashed after her. Purple blur and scent of dark magic led me outside. Guards at the front door, and stations around the castle, they didn't move. It was like the battle wasn't their concern.

"There she is! Girls, attack formation!"

I realized too late Twilight had to set up a trap. All six Elements of Harmony were in the line ready to attack. Five necklaces and one big crown, that settled down on Twilight's head lit up with ghastly light and fired.

Wave of energy hit me and I could hear furious beeping in my ear. Suit's power core had to overload and shut down. Other than that, I felt fine.

When the blinding white fog faded, I looked up. There was no change. I was still myself, not turned into stone, nor sent to the moon. Energy core reset and auxiliary kinetic shields, mounted inside of the suit started recharging slowly.

Twilight took down her crown, that now cracked floated withing her magic grasp. Twilight's horn buzzed with unstable magic, energy arcs jumping on it up and down. In her frustration, she threw the crown against the ground and stomped at it several times. She produced a battle cry, and attacked me directly with a flurry of magic bolts. Five of her followers just stood by. They didn't join our brawl, nor did my sisters, that appeared from withing the Palace just a minute ago.

Twilight's magic grew stronger with each moment. She was boiling with hate, and each string of her body ordered her to kill. Me on the other hoof, I was calm. I knew I could win, if I tried my best. Twilight was desperate, her precious Elements failed her, and no one else wanted to help her. She was alone against bigger force.

I deflected another beam spell. Ground around us exploded and pieces of crushed pavement rained upon our battling forms. Twilight stopped using her magic and decided to use hooves and teeth to finish me off.

My barrier blocked off first one of her hits, threw the attacker off balance. Twilight, standing on her rear pair of legs, waved her front pair in an attempt to stay upright. It gave me a moment to grab her. Our eyes met for a moment. Twilight had a grimace of surprise and fear. In that moment, she knew she had lost.

"That's enough..." I said and touched her forehead with my horn. There was a flash of light and my nemesis went limp.

It was over.

I carried Twilight in my arms to the formed circle of her friends and settled her down in the middle. Five of them, they gathered around me in somewhat mourning setting.

"Those who sell their soul to the devil will always end up in hell," I said, looking down at the five girls with necklaces resembling their cutie marks, "I hope you all realize that."

The orange mare took down her cowboy hat and bowed, "Mah family paid a price for Mah foolishness. Ah'm willin' ta accept any punishment ya'll come up wit."

Blue pegasus followed next, then the white unicorn, and yellow pegasus with pink mane. She was sobbing furiously, but still somehow quiet, compared to the pink earth pony. It almost seemed like that girl didn't even take last events seriously, as she was crying in an almost comical way.

Obsidian came up from behind of me, "Well, when that's over. What do you plan to do next?"

I had that one idea stuck inside of my head for a while and it was first time, I'd say it aloud, "Twilight forced me to leave the planet and go into exile. We've got one unused, vacant Ark. Are you thinking, what I am thinking, sister?" 


	25. Chapter 25

Some time flew by from the battle with Twilight Sparkle. Her closest followers, willing and unwilling, all of them were captured by either my task force, or Dream Legion. In the end, the number of ponies that swore their loyalty to the mad unicorn touched hundreds.

Eighth Ark had enough cryogenic pods for all of them, and there would be enough room for twice as much. Alea sealed the ship, programmed its system for the closest target in database and let it fly. Where it would end, where would tides of the universe carry it, no one knew for sure. Twilight's friends took the remaining Elements of Harmony with them, along with broken Twilight's crown. They would serve as an reminder of this event.

My sisters and I took the roles of ruling Equestria. Luna would join us in time, once she would cope with her own sister's illness.

Celestia didn't die, and death would be fulfilled wish for her. When Twilight touched her with dark magic, Celestia's powers got corrupted as well. Unlike Twilight, she didn't go mad. She was slowly loosing her power to the point standing up was a problem. One day, she wouldn't wake up at all.

After that, Luna would become a fully fledged Queen of all Equestria. It would be hard, but I was sure she could do it. She had me, and my sisters.

For the ponies of Equestria, getting from the grasp of enchanted regalia, it was like waking up from a dream. Real problems were suddenly a thing. It wasn't just sunshine and rainbows anymore.

One last ceremony was held, for the fallen heroes. In the name of Shining Armour, Princess Cadence, Princess Celestia, Queen Amora, Stardust, and many others, that died on the way.

I forgot to mention, Thorax disappeared. I asked my sisters how did he got outside of our ship, and by their words, it was him, who let Celestia out. Where he had ended up was a mystery, but to be honest, I didn't feel like looking for him.

New adventures were in our grasp, and the age of advancement, where ponies and changelings would work together, was finally here. 


End file.
